


Family

by arouraleona



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Curses, F/M, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Platonic Romance, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Troubles, curse, extreme pregnancy troubles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-05-25 21:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6209992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arouraleona/pseuds/arouraleona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The women of Lucy's family have been cursed for centuries, curse passing from mother to daughter upon birth. Most options of stopping the curse have failed. Facing death, she has one option left, and it requires propositioning Laxus Dreyar. (LaLu ... obviously.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blunt

Family

Chapter One

Blunt

"Laxus... I need to talk to you."

Lucy was nervous. This would be the most difficult conversation of her life, but it was also the most necessary. Excepting those she had, had with her spirits, which led to her approaching Laxus in the first place.

It was evening, half of the guild was drunk and on their way to being passed out, or otherwise occupied in conversations or games of their own with other guild members. Laxus himself had secured a seat in the shadows of the second floor, nursing a beer and relaxing with his sound pods. Not uncommon for him. She chose that night and that moment because his team happened to have disappeared for a split second, all three of them. Giving her an opening.

He was obviously – at least to her, since she had spent at least two months studying him, watching him like a hawk – shocked at her request.

"Yeah?"

"In private?" she asked. Her voice squeaked. She winced. She wanted to sound more _professional_ and sure of herself than this.

An eyebrow went up, stretching his scar, "...Yeah. We can use Gramps' office. That okay?"

"Yes, please."

She followed him back, wondering if her heart would explode before she reached their destination.

He sat at the Master's desk, in that large chair that made their small Master look like a tiny old doll. Lucy sat in the chair across from him.

"What's wrong." There was worry in his eyes. Something would have to be wrong for her to come to him like this.

And something was.

She'd spent weeks thinking how to phrase this, and suddenly none of her words, none of her prepared speeches felt right. She let her eyelids fall, then lift. She met his gaze.

"I'm going to be very blunt. You don't have to answer. You don't have to agree. You have the right to be angry."

He stared at her. "You're scared."

"Yes." Her hands were trembling, even if her voice were not. And her voice _was_ uncertain. He would naturally notice both of those things.

"What's wrong, Lucy?"

She took a deep breath. A deep, long, shuddering breath and told a story she was technically only supposed to tell one person, one little girl.

"I'm not sure how it happened," she told him. "I only know that it's true. As my mother told me, there is a curse on the women of my family. It amounts to this: Have one child, a daughter, and then die sometime within the next ten years. This has been true for at least the last five generations, likely longer. Records of previous women have been lost. Mama told me a story about a spurned lover, who was a very powerful mage, but she said it was probably just a story... like I said, the records have been lost. I haven't been able to find anything, and I've looked.

"I thought I could… _stop_ this by _not_ having children. On my last birthday I began to have nightmares. Monthly, now, I find myself in pain. Not the usual pain. I had my archive spirit do some research, and I spoke to those spirits who were contracted to my mother before me.

"I discovered that I was wrong. I have until I turn twenty to be pregnant. I am nineteen."

She watched him absorb the information, and watched his naturally neutral expression morph into one of pure shock. She pressed on.

"Usually, my grandmothers chose mages as partners – mages of varying skills, daughters never choosing a man with the same talents as her father – hoping to make their daughters strong enough to overcome, I guess. Or hoping to find a magical combination that could … work against the curse. Never worked. My mom, however, chose a magic-less man. It just killed her faster. She became sick almost as soon as I was born, her magic and life draining from her. I had planned on never having children. I didn't want to die. And I didn't want to pass the curse on." She bit her lip. "Turns out I don't have that option. Mama never said that we _had_ to. Or if she did, I forgot. Now, I either get pregnant before I turn twenty, or I become something of a walking plague. Not to the level of Zeref or Mavis, but I will spread misfortune. Anti-magic. And then I will _still_ die."

She swallowed. "I'm _nineteen_. I won't make the choice Mama made, because it was too hard on all three of us. And I still hope to beat this. And I thought of countering a curse with a curse. Specifically my family's birth curse with yours."

He blinked at her, shock morphing into confusion. Laced with shock. "My what?"

She almost laughed that he caught on that point and not the bigger proposition.

"As Mavis said when she told the story of her curse, she killed your great-grandmother when Makarov was born. That set a curse, at almost the moment of your grandfather's birth, if not a purposeful one. Not like mine is purposefully set. The boundaries that hold it are more flexible, but it is still rooted in your bloodline. Only sons, where we have only daughters, and mothers who can't stay; though, they don't always die the way the mothers in my family do."

The expression on his face was indescribable.

"You know this?"

"I can see it on you. I could see it since I met you. Though I asked around a little to get more of the details. I wondered... You can _only_ have a single son, to pass on yours; I can _only_ have a single daughter to fulfill mine. What would happen? Would one supplant the other? Mine is generations older. But then yours is rooted in one of the greatest dark magics there is and set, accidentally or not, by one of the most gifted mages. Held in the body of one of the most powerful mages in all of the country...

"Or would they cancel each other out? I came back to the thought; though, I didn't really pursue it. I hadn't planned on children, then, I like I said, so, really, it was a non-issue. But when Crux and I realized that was no longer the case, the thought returned."

She took a deep breath and met his eyes. "I'm not asking you to take any sort of … to participate any further than … I need to get _pregnant_ , Laxus. Nothing more is required. I realize that it isn't a minor request, but I just..." her deep breath wasn't doing her much good.

"You're scared," was his simple, repeated, response. She was surprised at how his shock and confusion had dimmed and returned to neutrality. He was processing, she decided. And doing it quickly.

"Yes. Yes, of course. But I must face the future anyway. I asked you first, Laxus, but you can say no. Obviously you can say no. This is a _request_. And a terrible one. I'm sorry."

"If I do say no?"

She grinned, though it wasn't especially happy. "I'll make do."

"Who with?"

"Someone. Anyone … random, maybe. There's no one in the guild who stands out. I thought maybe Rogue, but considering his fall into shadow, which we saw foretold … I'm worried he'd be infected in some way by the curse. Rogue walks a delicate path. So, I'm not sure. But I'm thinking fast."

"You'll stay in the guild?" he asked.

"Of course!"

He tapped a finger on the desktop. Agitated.

"Say this child that you've – what? – hidden the father of for … five years? Suddenly zaps Natsu with lightning. You realize the entire guild would kill me for knocking you up and leaving you to fend for yourself."

She bit her lip as he stood out of his grandfather's chair and came to loom over her.

"Not to mention you parading _my_ kid under _my_ nose and – what? – expecting me not to get involved?"

"I didn't want you to feel obligated. I'm not doing this for a husband and child and love. I'm doing this because I'm cursed."

They spent a long minute staring at one another. He leaned against the desk.

"Cursed. Fuck. _Cursed_. I didn't know, but that is basically what I thought of my _family_ , if that's what you'd call it. Shitty luck. Shitty Pops. Ran off my mom, I guess, and who the fuck could blame her. Then Gramps, I thought, ran off my stupid, asshole of a dad. Took Gramps for granted because he always had so many _other_ kids. Selfish little shit, but it was what it was. _Blunt_ ," he quoted her. "Okay. Okay. Stand up."

"What?" she was confused.

"Stand up, Lucy," he ordered.

Bewildered, she did. He reached and grabbed her forearm, pulling her to him. He was going to kiss her, she realized.

_Holy stars._

He rubbed the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone and held her jaw in his unnecessarily large hand. His other spanned the small of her back.

He did exactly as she thought he would, except that he started more cautiously than she imagined he might. Her left temple. The corner of her right eye. Her bare shoulder. Her chin. All before finally touching his lips to hers.

And that was all he did; touch.

Heat washed through her.

Again. Just as soft. Just as brief. Again.

Her hands curled into fists, using the fabric of his shirt to hold him, keep him from moving away. When had she...?

He shifted his grip to pull her closer, and then to push her back. She blinked up at him.

"Well," he said, his blue eyes closer to her face than they'd ever been before. "We know that, then."

"We know what?"

"Can't make babies without interest, Lucy." He flashed her a grin that washed her bones with heat a second time, not that they'd had a moment to cool.

She snorted, "Since plenty of young women I grew up with were forced to marry old, ugly men to continue company bloodlines, in the interest of nothing more than _money_ – _and have for decades been successful at doing so_ – I'd have to disagree. And, actually, I had a thought that Wendy might be able to do some sort of artificial transfer..." he looked horrified, and she laughed, the sound was a little weaker than normal. She was having problems getting air. "But I don't want to involve Wendy anymore than I want to involve anyone else. Not even you, but-"

"Yeah. I heard you." He stared. He was good at staring. It was why she asked him when she did. She knew he would take time to stare, and grabbing him this time of night, people would be less likely to notice either of their disappearances. They could have gone home. "No secret that I find you physically attractive. You're a good person. Patient, gotta be with your team. Reckless as all hell, but if you're not leaving … I never thought much about the whole wife and kids thing because I was so focused on Pops and Gramps and the guild and my magic and myself. Even after … even recently... But … a _family_..."

It wasn't her he was looking at, now. Not her face. His hand was on her hip, but she wasn't sure if he felt her presence at all. For a moment she vanished in his thoughts. Most of the world vanished in his thoughts. She watched it happen, watched as his mind focused in on that single word, that single idea.

"Mine."

"Ours," Lucy corrected. She wanted that clear. He was a very dominant force, and it was best that she assert herself right from the start.

His smile this time was softer. "Ours."

She sucked in a breath. He said the word, and even gently, but it pulled at her with a fierce need she hadn't quite expected.

"We'll get married, then?"

"What?!" she backed out of his hold.

"I wasn't lying; they'll all kill me if you have my – our kid, and I didn't do things the way Mira and Erza and Gramps think they should be done. Bad enough it's me-"

"There's nothing wrong with you!"

He snorted, "-and that we're doing this fast. But married is a goddamn must if I want to keep my head attached to my neck." He grinned down at her, "And other suddenly especially vital body parts attached."

She blushed. Stared. Shook her head in disbelief. Then laughed.

"What?"

"You're not freaking out like I thought you would," she shook her head again. "If you're absolutely serious, well... I believe I just arranged my own marriage. The very thing I fled to Fairy Tail to avoid. I was just appreciating the irony."

He rolled his eyes. "Shit like that has a way of catching up with you, maybe." He leaned back onto the desk. "How soon?"

"Don't you want time to consider? To ask questions? I've thought about this almost my whole life, you-"

"Are cursed. That's what you said. Were you lying?"

"No!"

"So now I see that I can do one of three things. Continue as I am. Good for now, but lonely, maybe, in the future. Now that you're making me actually _think_ about it, yeah. Lonely. Find some other woman to have a son with. A woman I can't hope to keep, and a son who's probably going to have a shit relationship with me because of that, and will _also_ be cursed. Or, I can choose you. And your time is limited."

She winced at _limited_. "My theories could be wrong. Maybe I'll have twins and both of the curses will carry."

He nodded. "Possible. But, like you said, this is the only one with a chance. I don't need to think about _if_. You laid out the variables, logically this is the one with the best chance. Now we need to talk about _how_. You have how long until you're twenty?"

"Ten months."

"Just gotta get pregnant, not give birth."

"Right."

"Totally doable," he _almost_ smirked. She could see it in the shadows at the corners of his lips. Were the situation not clouded with the possibilities of death and misfortune he would absolutely have been leering.

"Back off on the ego, Laxus. The curse takes care of that, too." She pulled up the lower hem of her shirt, and down the waistband of her skirt to show the tattooed birth control charm on her hip bone. "I don't even _have_ sex, but I have this. As a _just in case_ measure because the curse needs me to have a baby. It'll happen fast, but have little to do with your virility. Yours is the same." She nodded at his covered hips, "Your reputation being what it is, though, I'm guessing you've never had to worry about women trying to fake you out with charms that weren't magicked in order to have your baby?"

"Perceptive." He flashed her his own tattoo. "Gildarts took me to get it almost the second I hit puberty. _Trust no one but yourself_ , he told me."

Lucy rolled her eyes in disgust. "I just bet he did."

"Back on point: Still think _fast_ , since my skin is on the line here. Get married. Elope."

"Elope," she echoed.

He shrugged his massive shoulders, "Sure, why not?"

"Why..." Lucy looked at him and thought about the kiss. About them in this office. Her sneaking to find him. Spending months thinking about him. About _making decisions_ about _how_ , and no longer worrying about _if_. "Okay. Okay. We leave a note … here. For Master. Planting the idea that we've had a secret relationship for awhile now. You're a private person, I'm fond of a mystery, and god if the occasional moment of privacy wouldn't be a blessing… We would … the … the canal where I walk maybe? Leave clues of when we were free to meet. Simple yes/no things. We can work out those details later. Then we decided... marriage. Why not? And since the relationship was a secret, why go through the hassle, the hustle, so we just went off? Suits your notion of not liking to deal with a lot of fuss, and it is romantic in its own way, so I would easily be brought around to approving. Sound okay?"

Laxus shrugged again. "Works for me."

"They're going to lose their minds," she whispered, imagining the reception of their guild to her story.

The curse. A child. _Sex_. Those were the things – the important, the horrifying, the terrifying, the _mortifying_ things – she had considered. Not marriage. She never even thought about that.

"Where?" he asked.

"Crocus," was her immediate answer. "Large enough to get lost in," he frowned briefly, she wondered why, "and I know people there still from living there during our year apart. In case someone came for us and hiding became important."

"Right."

"Also it would be an immediate national filing of the license instead of a local one that is then relayed. You know, in case someone wanted to stop it."

"Right," he deadpanned the word a second time.

"Laxus, are you-"

He stood. His hand, she realized, had found its way back to her hip. The other returned to her face.

"You made your decision? I say we go tonight."

"...Okay. Do you want to leave the note?"

His nose developed a line of, not quite disgust, but certainly disinterest. "Not a big note writer."

"He's your grandfather, he loves you, and you're getting married without him," she admonished.

"So rub his nose in it?"

Lucy tried not to laugh, but a chuckle slipped out despite her effort. It pleased him, she could tell. "Let him know in case it shows up in the papers. Plus, that we'll both be gone for a few days."

"A few..." a wolfish grin. "Sure. A letter."

He returned to his grandfather's seat, and she watched him puzzle over a piece of paper. After ten minutes, she went to see what he'd managed to write.

_Gramps;_

_Me and Lucy are gunna be gone 'til next week. Getting married._

That was all he had. She laughed. Threw back her head and laughed. _Blunt_ was their watch-word for all of this after all. She took the pen from him and added:

**_Sorry, Master, but we didn't want to make a big thing, and no one knew, anyway. Try to keep people from chasing us down! We'll be back in a week-_ **

Laxus took the pen.

_-maybe two weeks-_

She took it back.

**_-a week, because any longer and there would probably be riots. Try to keep Freed and Mira hydrated so they don't cry themselves to death!_ **

**_See you soon!_ **

**_-Lucy_ **

_Bye Gramps;_

_-Laxus_

He set the pen down and placed an empty mug at one corner of the page to keep the note in place.

"What do you need from home? Where do you want to meet?" he asked.

"I'll pack a bag for a week, like planned. Depends on how you travel."

"Teleport, normally."

"Can you take other people?" she was curious.

"...doesn't seem safe."

"I can use my Gemini star dress, with Gemini copying you, which means I would have access to your power. Don't see why I couldn't just be something like an extension of you like that. I think it would work."

He muttered. "Reckless. When you're pregnant? This is the sort of thing you won't be doing."

She laughed at him and how easily he gave in. Almost every moment of this conversation went _not_ the way she expected it to. Looking at the door and remembering all the people that were outside of it, she smiled. "Don't want to run into anyone accidentally... wanna do it all romantic-like and meet at midnight in the forest somewhere?"

"You really don't appreciate your own bad luck, do you? You'll get caught or attacked or something for sure. How about 9, the big church on the other side of town."

She allowed a slow grin to overtake her mouth. "You can see that church tower from anywhere in the city... you know, I've heard a rumor..."

"Does that work, Lucy?"

She just laughed and nodded.

He tried a glare, but it didn't quite work. "See you at 9, Lucy."

"See you." She paused. Considered telling him that she wouldn't judge him if he changed his mind. Didn't show up. Considered it, and in an instant discarded the thought. It insulted the power of his choice. "Thank you, Laxus," she said instead.

He nodded, and shot away in light and sound.

Flash and fury.

Power.

0000X0000

**Author's Note:**

This is an ongoing story, originally posted to FF.Net in November 2015, which I had the basic IDEA for sometime around April 2015. At the time, my idea was to wait for my other story, _Downstairs and Dead_ (which is also ongoing at this point in time) to finish. But it was still ongoing when the manga began dropping bombs about Zeref's past, and I knew we were about to get some about Lucy's mom, and I wanted it out before that happened. When I published it THERE it was still NOT AU. At this point, considering what we know about Lucy's mom, AU is probably a better designation for the story, but I don't plan on marking it as such.

This story, parts of it, is going to be immensely personal for me. And part of that is going to relate to some of the shit that happened in November, mentioned in the original _D and D_ posting, and concerning a friend of mine, which I DID NOT expect when I started jotting down this story back in April/May.

The Makarov/Ivan/Laxus thing always stood out to me from the beginning, and then with FT:Zero and Yurity...I was like, what's up with all the testosterone in the Dreyar family? Lucy's mom dying so tragically and mysteriously just screamed curse, and I put them together. (I also get frustrated with fics of Mira calling for babies, I kinda want Lucy just to turn and scream at her "BABIES WILL KILL ME" because good god, not everyone can HAVE children. Sometimes children KILL people. Not everyone WANTS children! I know she's a shipper but good lord... half the FT guild seem to be orphans, Mira being part of that group, and for all we know more than a few of their moms could have died in childbirth helping to make them orphans in the first place.)

So. That's why this story is a thing. Hope you enjoy. Right now this is at 4 chapters. Should have them transferred here ... today or tomorrow, depending on how my internet/work goes.


	2. Vow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we pop metaphorical champagne.

Family

Chapter Two

Vow

Their plan to leave Magnolia worked to perfection. They met. They walked into the empty building, and they shot away – after Lucy had aped some of her _fiance's_ power. He said it was weird to look at a double of himself. She'd gotten used to it.

They landed in the capital too late to get married. Government offices were all closed for the night. Not that she was unaware of that or that she was so impatient for something she had not even expected to happen.

She was scared. As had already been observed, multiple times.

And understandably! Raised to the idea of an arranged marriage, but fought her entire life against it. Yet, here she was, marrying a man for practical reasons, not emotional ones.

"Lucy?" he said from outside the bathroom, where she was currently hiding in the tub.

"Yeah?" she called back.

"I'm going out for a bit. Hungry. Want anything to eat?"

It was late, but honestly, she hadn't been stable enough to eat all day. She was really hungry, now that he mentioned it. And restaurants, unlike government offices, were open late in Crocus. "Strawberry soda and some kind of solid food. I'm hungry. Don't care what."

"Alright. Be back."

"'K."

She heard the door slam.

"Not true," she told herself, replying to earlier thoughts. "There are emotional reasons. Like he said. _Family_." She'd liked the way he said the word. The way he owned it.

And she could have, as she said, picked anyone. Laxus had a curse, too, yes. But she also trusted him. As a guildmate. Cared for him in that way. Knew he would protect her, if that was what was called for, and would do her best to do the same for him. And if her curse carried through, she was fairly certain that his trials with his own father would keep him with their child if she died. Even if that child had her face. As she had the face of her mother, her father's wife.

Trust, care, a feeling of safety.

When he kissed her...

She trembled.

It wasn't like the arranged marriages when she was a little girl. Sure, she hadn't fallen in love with Laxus. This was desperation and selfishness. But he was better than anything her father would have picked.

He was flawed. Cocky – with reason, yes, but it would rile her, she could already tell – and stoic wouldn't pair well with dreamy and emotional. But the _need_ behind the arrangement might make it work.

She could very easily imagine herself falling for him, dreamy and emotional as she was.

Sighing, she crawled out of the bath, dressed, and went into the bedroom.

Laxus had offered two rooms. She had snorted and called him an unexpected romantic, while blushing. Two beds, she said – still blushing – was fine for the night. They could do the license when the offices opened, and then maybe since they said they'd be gone a week, they would go somewhere else.

She didn't use the word _honeymoon_ , but she had thought it very loudly. He had agreed. She'd kept her excited ( _frightened_ ) cheers to herself, inside her own head, too.

She was sitting on her bed reading a book when he ducked into the room an hour later. Literally ducked.

"We should have found a taller hotel," she teased as he tossed a bag of what smelled like a burger and fries next to her and put the soda on the table between their beds.

"Eh, I'm used t'it."

"Yeah. I wonder how Elfman manages anymore. I mean he has to go sideways through some of the doors in the back rooms of the guild!"

"You been to their house?" he asked as he started in on his own food.

"No?"

"They altered all of the doors for him. Expanded his room, too." He flashed her a sharp grin. "Got Ever drunk a few months ago, and she said they'd had to replace his bed four times."

" _They'd_."

He laughed, "That's what Bix said, but she was too sloshed for subtle jabs. I'm not sure it was the extra muscle either... well..."

Her skin blistered with heat, but she laughed. "With _MIRA_ in the house, though? I know Evergreen is your teammate, and I mean no offense, but... is she really that brave? Cuz I don't think Elfman is at all."

"Brave don't have shit to do with it. With Ever? Stubborn. Belligerent."

"Big word," she told her straw.

"Freed," he sneered.

"Ha!" she snorted, almost spitting her soda. "He calls Evergreen _belligerent_? To her face? And he isn't decorating Fairy Hills' front lawn as a statue?"

"He was also drunk; neither of them remember it. Or at least they have a mutual agreement to pretend like they've forgotten it."

"Huh." She smiled. "He is funny drunk. Though, I've only seen it a few times. Very demanding and energetic."

"And you? What are you like drunk?"

She tilted her head to the side, "I don't really know. According to Natsu, I make him treat me like a cat or something. He pretty much refuses to talk about it. Natsu and Gray both hate it when Erza, Juvia, and I get any sake. Oh! But Carla is hilarious!"

"...you've gotten the little girl's exheed drunk."

"Yup. She turns into a little empress and forces Happy to act like a horse and carry her around. Someone recorded it. Poor Happy."

"You don't sound all that sad," he observed.

She laughed, "I'll find the recording and show you, and you'll get it. Plus that cat deserves a bit of embarrassment now and again as payback. What about you drunk?"

"Can't really get drunk. Metabolism's too high."

"Like, as a dragon slayer? Because Wendy can-"

"You got _Wendy_ drunk?!" His eyes were huge in his head. He looked so alarmed that it was comical. And a bit cute.

"Well _I_ didn't."

Still horrified, he explained, "I don't think it's dragon slayer specific, but I've never seen Natsu more than buzzed for a minute or two."

"Makes sense." She finished her burger. He finished his three.

He tossed her a box.

"Here."

"What is it?"

"It's spur of the moment for us, but the letter means it should be something we kinda thought about, right? Only makes sense there'd be a ring-"

Maybe he was still talking. She was no longer listening.

It wasn't _fancy_ , as in elaborate, but it was without doubt unique.

White gold set with what looked like a quarter-carat pale pink diamond, bordered by chip-small canary diamonds that flashed golden light around that faint-glowing rose.. The design itself was simple. Were they regular diamonds, completely unremarkable. As they were, however...

"Laxus," she whispered, finally looking from the ring, up to his face. "You..." again, she considered saying something like _you shouldn't have_ or _let me help pay for it_ , which would lessen the value of the gift. "It is beautiful. Perfect."

She pulled it from the cushion in the box, and slid it onto the proper finger. Admiring how the colors looked against her skin and how the diamond sparkled in the room's light. She grinned.

She almost cried.

She slid off of her bed and leaned over to him, placing her lips firmly to his. He stayed very still.

Nervous, she realized. The fear she had was starting to touch him, too.

"Thank you, Laxus."

When she would have gone back to her own bed, he finally moved to grab her left hand and pull her back to him.

This kiss was like the one in the office. It left her gasping. Weak. Half on fire. And she knew what it was like, to be on fire. She ached with promises, and all he touched was her fingers and her mouth.

She wasn't going to have to worry about curses, she thought giddily as he released her and told her good night. She was going to die the next day when he touched her... No way was she surviving that.

0000

They woke early, both of them. In fact, neither had gotten much in the way of sleep. They ate, Laxus had picked up fruit and water the night before to stand as a basic breakfast, and then they dressed.

Though it wasn't a _real_ wedding, or a wedding at all, it was still a marriage. Lucy wanted to look nice when she signed that particular contract. She … She... Now that she truly understood the _rules_ of the curse, she couldn't be certain her mother loved her father when they married. What she was doing now, her mother could have done then. But there was absolutely no question that her father had loved her mother. It was why he had mourned so deeply and so darkly. It was why he had never remarried, or even considered doing so.

Like her father, Lucy had no intentions of doing this a second time, even though this wasn't a marriage of love, and even if her plan was successful. Like her mother, she would make this man into a partner, and come to love him as best she could.

Lucy knew that her heart was her strongest asset, and thought maybe she could take the tragedy of her parents and make it right. The lessons of her childhood and make them a foundation for her new life.

"Virgo."

"Yes, Princess." The pink-haired spirit arrived, dress already in hand. They always best-knew what she needed. Lucy smiled.

"It's beautiful."

Virgo's nod was brusque, "We all thought so, Princess."

Light filled the bathroom, and she straightened her shoulders to deal with Loke, who had been against the plan from the start. Because it was Laxus. Because he was protective. But he had no alternatives to offer her. Not when her death was the end option.

"I don't like it," were his first words. He was scowling, but she knew the expression wasn't aimed at her – or the dress – but the situation.

"I'm aware. And I'd appreciate if you remembered _I'm_ the one living this, Loke. But it's happening. It was his suggestion," she offered. "He didn't want to not be a part of the child's life."

Loke's scowl deepened. "There's no guarantee he'll be a good husband or father."

"There is no guarantee _anyone_ will be a good spouse or parent. We're both going into this with open eyes, at least. We've both experienced some of the _worst_ examples of parenting, so we know what _not_ to do, and we've seen hints of good parenting – Mama, Master, Bisca and Alzak. We'll have help, friends, which our fathers wouldn't accept even if they had any.

"If I die, still, he won't be alone, like father was. His team wouldn't let him be alone, and my team wouldn't let him lock away my daughter or son from the light the way I was. No matter the outcome of the curse, both curses … it has to be better in _this_ generation than in the last. He's not Ivan. He's not my father. You _have_ to at least acknowledge that, Loke."

The foul expression did not fade. "I don't like that you are marrying without love."

"I'm not. I'm not _in love_ with him, but I'm not _without_ love. He's of the guild, and I love that aspect of him. He is saving me, and that fills my heart. He _proposed_ , Loke, when all I asked for was sex. All I asked for was sex and what he heard was _family_. That connects us, deeply. This will not be a marriage without my love."

Finally her lion wilted. "Fine. Fine. But if he hurts you..."

"You'll have help, I'm sure," she smiled. Another man she wouldn't insult by forbidding his need to protect her. That was his natural, driving imperative.

"Go away, Loke. I need to get dressed."

"I could..."

"Go _away_ , Loke."

He finally smiled and after he faded away a light reading _I love Lucy most_ remained.

It cheered her as she readied herself for the short trip to the office. She called out Cancer, who softened her hair slightly, and added a small sparkling hair pin, but otherwise left her hair down and loose. Nothing fancy, but still very attractive. Like her ring. Looking at it made her smile.

When she left the bathroom, she found Laxus waiting in black slacks, a white button down, and a black blazer. She wasn't surprised by his clothing, or how good it looked on him, not really. It was just odd to see him in something like a blazer. Button downs, yes. His coat, yes. Blazer?

He looked nice, though.

"You look nice," she decided to tell him.

"Ditto."

Such a way with words.

"I think my spirits matched the ring on purpose," she told him, indicating the yellow accents on the pale-pink sundress.

"Or they just know you like those colors."

She laughed, "Or that." Looking at him, more seriously at him, she asked, "Nervous?"

"No." He was scowling.

"Liar."

He glared more, but she just rolled her eyes deciding to ignore it.

"Ready?"

"Mmm-hmm," she nodded, picking up her bag. They wouldn't be returning to the room.

"Where do you want to go after?"

She flashed him a devious grin, "I was kind of thinking Shirotsume. There's a wonderful hot spring there, you know."

That stopped him in his tracks.

"And it's one of the towns closest to Blue Pegasus."

"Oh?" She made her eyes wide. "Really?"

"Lucy."

"Ah?"

"If Ichiya, who loves hot springs, or any other Blue Pegasus mage sees us before Gramps, they..."

"Yes?"

"You realize me dying so soon goes _against_ your plans. I have to be alive for at least a little while."

"True. True. But I was thinking … rumor, confirmation. Master Bob and Ichiya are the closest mages to our guild. More-so now that you and yours spent a year there."

They walked casually the fourteen blocks to the nearest government office. Laxus tilted his head to the side, lifting his chin slightly to indicate a coffee shop across from the office. People were staring.

"I think the story will spread without any help from us," he murmured, holding open the door for her. "I'm willing to bet..." he thought, "dinner, all weekend, that it shows up in tomorrow's paper."

He didn't quite smile, but there was humor in his eyes. "I'm pretty famous, Lucy, and you're popular yourself."

She considered. "You make a good point. A very good point. Such a good point that I challenge that Jason will release an evening edition flier for Crocus on the issue that will be the basis of the papers tomorrow."

That did make him laugh.

They were, though they had left early, fourth in line at the clerk's desk. Now, she was terrified. Teasing aside, she was terrified.

She reached out for his hand, and he allowed her to take it.

He was trembling. Her eyes widened, but she didn't say a word about it, just leaned closer.

"Master will be in his office in an hour," she whispered.

"More like two," Laxus corrected. "Mira ordered whiskey, which came in yesterday, and he stole a bottle. Saw him do it. She'll be pissed, and he'll be sleeping it off. I made sure to lock up behind me, though. No one'll see the letter before he does."

"I left a short note at my place, too," she told him. "Not as many details, just that I was going away for a bit and to check the guild for more information. Natsu might have found it by now. He was only going to be away from town with Happy for a day. It's hard to predict how long he takes to travel. Happy's speed isn't as regular as a train schedule. And their attention wanders. If he's found it..."

"They won't suspect Crocus, and they can't get here so fast."

"Mmm." Only two ahead of them. And those two, like everyone else in the room, were beginning to pay more attention to _them_ than to the clerk.

Them. Their hands. The ring. Laxus was very right. This wasn't staying a secret. People would know _before_ they signed the paperwork because the people _in front of them_ would-

Lucy smiled at those two people who were staring and in front of them.

"Excuse me," she said in a bright, sweet voice, "but do you mind if me and this giant here cut in line? We've got reservations we really don't want to miss." Almost in a daze, they nodded, and she put a hand, her sparkling left hand, to her heart in gratitude. "Thank you so much!"

Laxus blinked, and she pulled him to the counter as it freed up.

"We are here to get married," she told the old woman. Breathless. Shaking like a leaf.

Bored and hardly paying attention, only person in the office who wasn't since she was completely focused on her desk, the woman pulled out a form and a pen.

"Fill this out."

Lucy quickly read through the contract finding nothing surprising. It was purely legal in nature. She quickly filled out her own information, leaving the address section blank with a raised eyebrow at Laxus, who nodded. Her doorways were _far_ too small for him. She giggled.

She quickly considered the matter of surname but decided to take his after playing with the idea of hyphenation. Father had been all about hyphenating to show the power of a combined family, but that wasn't what this was about. And she knew Laxus had struggled with his own surname and its own fame and infamy. She would do her part to make it a _family_ name. A name of closeness instead of a name for headlines.

You know, after it made _these_ headlines. Of course.

With a slight smile, and chewing the inside of her cheek, she signed the document _Lucy Dreyar_.

Power welled up beside her, but never turned into electricity. She gave him the pen when she was certain he wouldn't destroy it, and pushed him the paper when she was certain he wouldn't fry it.

She watched him write, which she hadn't really taken the occasion to do when they wrote the note the day before. His hand was firm, and regimented, which was unsurprising. But the characters were interestingly curved, and certain ones, t's and a's for example, connected to their following characters in most cases.

The style resulted in an unexpectedly attractive and pleasantly readable script.

His signature was equally firm and certain.

When the clerk reviewed the document, she finally looked up. Her mouth open in shock.

"I... I..."

"It okay?" Laxus rumbled.

Lucy reached up to touch the small woman's wrinkled hand. "What do we do next?"

"Oral portion of the contract..." she said, which made sense to Lucy. That was generally how she defined contracts. "Ummm..." the woman flipped through her book, though she had surely done this hundreds of times before.

Lucy noticed Laxus' faint smirk. The woman being flustered to such a degree had stilled his own nerves. She felt much the same.

"Now," the woman put her finger on a paragraph. "Repeat after me, Lucy: _I, Lucy_ -"

"I, Lucy-" she refused to allow her voice to shake.

" _-vow to bind myself-_ "

"-vow to bind myself-"

" _-to this man-_ "

"-to this man-" she looked at him, smiling.

" _-following the laws of Fiore-_ "

"-following the laws of Fiore-"

" _-and those of the heart and soul._ "

She didn't hesitate because what she had told Loke had not been untrue. Her heart was part of this. "-and those of the heart and soul."

"And now Laxus," she turned to him. " _I, Laxus_ -"

"I, Laxus-"

Lucy almost gasped, because a feeling rose inside her, inside of her where her power lived, responding to the strength of his voice and the cadence of the oath. Her magic understood what this was, even if Laxus wasn't a celestial spirit, and the magic, celestial or not, had perked up to listen to him.

" _-vow to bind myself to this woman-_ "

"-vow to bind myself to this woman-"

" _-following the laws of Fiore-_ "

"-following the laws of Fiore-"

" _-and those of the heart and soul_."

"-and those of the heart and soul."

And, for the first time, Lucy made a contract with a human.

From his pocket he pulled rings, which he hadn't mentioned, but she should have known he'd bought. He reached for her hand and added a second, pale-yellow gold band to sit with the one he'd given her the night before. When he would have slipped his own on, she snatched it from him and put it on properly, herself.

No. It wasn't a wedding, but a few things she could have. She grabbed the collar of his blazer and pulled him down far enough so that she could, on tip-toe, stretch up to kiss him.

When he lifted her slightly, she heard clapping. And when he placed her carefully back on her own two feet, there were cheers. Lucy heard the loud thuds of a stamp hitting hard against a table, validating their contract, and the clerk handed them a witnessed document.

"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Dreyar."

There were echos of that as they escaped the office into a side street

"Where are we going?" he asked again.

"Mountains. My team would never look for _me_ in the mountains."

Laxus nodded. "Went training in the mountains a little over a year ago. Know a place. Never stayed there, but it has hot springs, since you seem to like that sort of thing, and has a very good rep."

"Yes. Then that's the place. She lifted her bag and pulled out her Gemini key. Once again, Laxus appeared unnerved at the spirits' version of him, but it did the trick. Moments later, they were in front of a snowy mountain lodge. A very large, stuck in the mountain, super ritzy, snowy mountain lodge.

"Think we can rely on _their_ discretion?" she asked only slightly sarcastically.

"Eh?"

"I was wondering if maybe you should sign in alone. Communication lacrima are a thing, after all."

He grinned. "At this point? It'll be out tonight or tomorrow, remember, and if it gets out that we're _here_ , we'll just move."

"Or we could just plan to move," she suggested. "Stay two days, maybe go to a lake or forest one? There are some caves in the northwest I've always meant to see..."

Privately, she was recalling stories of bridal journeys, month or maybe longer trips following a wedding giving a couple time to get to know one another. Traditionally for arranged marriages of royalty, lesser nobles, and then wealthy business folk had taken up the practice from time to time.

"Sounds like a plan. No way the old man's going to be able to keep the whole guild inside. If it were anyone else and he could command Freed's help, _maybe_ -"

"But that's not going to work if Freed's one of the first ones trying to break down the door," she agreed. They walked to the resort entrance, and he opened the door for her.

She nodded her thanks.

0000X0000


	3. Mortifying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things aren't as sexy as you might expect, but are possibly sexier than I thought I was capable of.

Family

Chapter Three

Mortifying

The idea of a _wedding dress_ that wasn't a _wedding dress_ had been easy. Just a pretty dress that had fit the theme. She twisted the rings on her finger as one of the staff took her bag from her and led the way to their room. The dress was easy, but _after_ the dress...

She had considered asking Virgo for something... something _special_ , but she...

She touched her hip.

Yeah. She was seriously freaked out. But she had been honest with him, and he would understand.

When the porter opened the door to their room and directed them to enter, she was impressed. It was large. It was well appointed. And in what was already obviously a pricey place, it was very likely one of the best rooms in the resort.

"So. You're paying for this, right?"

That surprised laughter from him, and maybe shocked the employee a little.

"I'm just saying. Natsu torched my sofa last month, which I had to replace. I'm slightly lighter on funds than I like."

Laxus tossed a few jewels tip at the porter and shut the door in his face.

"Yeah. This month and _every_ month. Sofas, food, windows, that time he and Gray blew out your building's flooring doing something to the plumbing?"

"I was complaining about the water temperature. That was early days. I was new. I hadn't realized yet how their competitiveness would actually wreck my home over something as simple as me whining after a long day."

Laxus scoffed. She supposed at her naive lack of understanding of Natsu and Gray's insanity. "I say we charge the room to Natsu. Know his bank number?"

"Doesn't have one," she chuckled at the look of confusion. "He keeps a lock box. He never makes much after damages, but he also doesn't have so many bills. Owns his place. No heating. No cooling. No lacrima gadgets. He's only interested in fighting. Sometimes fishing, but he uses willow poles, so he doesn't spend money like that either."

"How does he live?" Laxus wondered.

"Very freely. I envy him. Not that he doesn't have great sadness in him, just as the rest of us do, but he decided to be as he is. Luckily _as he is_ is only dimwitted and harebrained and not – say – evil."

"I ... see what you mean."

She walked over to the double doors and opened them to find they looked out over the edge of the mountain. She sucked in a breath in awe.

"I didn't realize we were so high up!"

Even though it was summer and everything in that scenery far below them was green, up here the air was cold and crisp. She shivered.

"It's marvelous. Is this where you, Freed, Evergreen, and Bixlow trained for the Games?"

He walked out onto the balcony next to her and grunted. He pointed to the peak of the mountain to the left of the one their hotel was set in.

"We were there most of the time. Ever sneaked here for the baths, though. Bix did, too, once or twice. Water's cold up there."

"Yet, you..." she smiled.

His posture turned very self-righteous, "Men don't worry about shit like that."

"So I'll never have to worry about you using all the hot water?" she said sweetly.

"You think there's hot water at my place?" he said the opposite of sweetly.

"If there's not, I'll install a special Natsu-broiler," she warned him. "Best water heater there is, but a bit temperamental. Been known to burn down the occasional building, you know."

He snorted, and they stood there for a few minutes, just looking at the scenery. It was awkward, and they both knew it.

" _Do_ you have hot water at your place?" she asked, to fill the silence. And because that was extremely important information.

He scoffed, "Of course."

"Hey!" she held up her hands. "You just told me a story about spending three months without a hot bath because of y-chromosomes or something, so I think it's a totally fair question."

Laxus rolled his eyes, "Yes, I have hot water."

"Do you live alone?"

"Yeah. I lived with Gramps before, but I decided to get my own place when I was re-instated. Probably a little pissed at him." He gave a sharp nod, "Yeah, I was holding a grudge. All of it got crushed, you know, with Tartaros. I was so wrecked and worried. And I thought, hey, maybe I'll build a place and Gramps and me... Of course that shit didn't work out, at all. When we rebuilt _again_... yeah, I live alone." He looked down at her. She saw it, though she was looking out at the scenery still. "Lived alone."

With an agonized cry of frustration, Lucy slapped her hands over her face and basically just squatted on the balcony floor. "Good god, Laxus, this is so damn awkward. I'm terrified. I thought I had prepared myself for this. I _had_ , when I made it _simple_. _You_ made it _not simple_. It's not supposed to work like this; I know it's not, and that's making it worse. My being terrified is making it difficult for you. I'm about to have fits. For the love of all that is holy: Make this not terrifying."

There was a long moment of silence which was possibly more embarrassing than anything that had come before it because she thought it meant he was completely alarmed by her, which would not make any of this easier, but then he cleared his throat.

"That reputation you mentioned probably said something about me not having to do much work when it comes to starting shit, yeah?"

"Yeah," she agreed, eyes still firmly pressed into the heels of her palms. "But I have _no_ reputation and might possibly throw myself over the railing in a second. So... you know... _do something_. I would like to get this _over with_ so I can get past being so embarrassed, please."

"Over with..." he repeated, and sounded very unhappy about it. "Hmm... Okay, let's try this."

His hands wrapped around her elbows and he lifted her bodily to her feet. "Uncover your eyes, Lucy, and follow me."

She swallowed, but found herself doing as ordered. Again.

He led her to the bathroom.

"What?!" she squeaked.

He shrugged. "I can't really know what you like, because you don't likely know much about what you like, but you obviously find baths comforting. Take one."

"Wh...what?"

She looked around. The bathroom was huge. Spa tub. Large shower. Spa tub. Double sinks. Spa tub. A lounge chair. Spa tub. Laxus sat himself on the chair – carefully, the giant bastard – and nodded to the tub.

"I'm struggling to understand how this is less terrifying," her voice shook.

"Turn on the bath, Lucy."

She blinked once. Twice. Still couldn't understand how this was the less scary option or how this was an option at all. And turned on the taps to the very nice bathtub. Which in any other situation she would be over the moon about.

"Now," she turned back to see him smiling. "Big as that damn thing is, it'll take awhile to fill up. Come here."

Her muscles and joints locked up.

"Come on, Lucy. I'm not so scary, am I?" That smile was getting bigger.

"Maybe you are."

"I could be, I guess," he nodded, "but I don't get off on that, and I'd bet money it's not your thing either. So we'll stick with this." He lifted himself, again, carefully, from the lounge to meet her by the tub. Since she hadn't moved an inch in his direction.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out, of all things, a hair tie. Lucy looked up at him, mystified. He grinned.

"First lesson in _me_ : I'm generally prepared for shit. Don't like to be surprised."

"Uh, okay, but..."

"Two of my teammates have long hair. Comes in handy from time to time. Got glasses and glue in my coat."

She paused for a second, taking in that information. Glasses and glue. Just in case. _Glasses_. And _glue_. While she stood still, he reached around her, pulling out Cancer's pretty gift and placing it gently on the rim of the sink. He lifted her hair, and tied it up. Nothing fancy, just a messy-mess on top of her head so that it wouldn't get wet. She watched his hands in the mirror as he let go and the tie snapped into place.

"Wh...who are you?"

He laughed.

He rested one of his hands on her hip. He seemed to find that comfortable. It made her want to come out of her skin.

He hooked a finger under and around the inch-wide strap of her dress that covered her collarbone and shifted it to the side. Replacing it very briefly with his mouth. She gasped.

"Sit, Lucy."

She sat on the rim of the tub. She was damn lucky she didn't faint.

He took off her sandals. One, and then the other. It was almost alarmingly lover-like the way he kissed the inside of her left ankle. Her right calf.

When she asked him to make it _less_ terrifying, she'd hoped he'd just _get it over with_ , not draw it out like this!

He had discarded his blazer and unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt, but despite the fact that all she had lost were shoes, she felt naked before him.

She was going to die.

"Stand up, Lucy." He didn't wait for her to do as he said, but grabbed her hands and pulled. With a gentle lift and turn of her left, he spun her so that she faced the bath and not him. She breathed.

He put a hand on the zipper of her dress and she stopped. Completely stopped.

He adjusted the grip on her left hand so that he held it, fingers interlocked, and brought both of their hands to rest against her midsection. His face, she felt it press into her hair, above her right ear.

"It's okay. You're okay. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Just like in the office. This can't be any harder than that, right? What's got you so scared? Can't be that you're worried I'll not like what I see. You already know I like what I see. I advertised that to the whole guild like a giant asshat years ago. Worried what I'll think? Don't be. You said it: We both went into this with open eyes."

Shocked, she threw her head back to meet his gaze, surprised enough to get beyond the rest of her feelings.

"You heard?"

"Yes. I did."

"I'm sorry," she whispered quickly. "Loke is just really protective and-"

He cut her off with a kiss that left her knees weak and her relying on that fist in her midsection to keep upright.

"I couldn't give a single fuck about what that overgrown cat thinks about me," he grinned, all canines and ozone-blue eyes. "But the things you said. That had meaning. You offered me something yesterday I didn't think I'd ever have. Someone who was _mine_. I... I said I took Gramps for granted because he was practically _everyone's_ grandfather. Technically, by blood, he's no one else's grandfather but mine, but that's not the way it _feels_."

His voice stretched the word like pulling on a half-healed wound, and _god_ it hurt her, too.

"At my core I'm a fucking selfish asshole and I know it, and I want something that belongs to me and no one else. My team, they're devoted; they say they're mine, but they're not. Not really. They're their own people. Friends, teammates, but they can't be anything more than that. They'll belong to other people, eventually. Already on their way to that." The hand that had been on her zipper tilted her chin up just a little more. "But you. You're mine, now. Legally. No one can take you from me. And you're a loyal person. You keep promises. Not going to leave me-"

She almost choked. Dear holy sweet stars, she had made a terrible error in judgment. She hadn't known. She hadn't understood. Need like this was even worse than love... if she were wrong. If she _died_ with him like this...

He would be worse, more broken than her father.

"-for someone else. That's not who you are. You gave me something I'd wanted a long time. Maybe it won't last forever. But it won't end because you _want_ it to end, I know that. And it won't end because you didn't fucking fight for it. And it won't end because you were too afraid of yourself or of me to actually start."

He lowered her chin and brushed his fingers down the line of her body until he touched her bare thigh. She shivered at the contact. A second later she shivered because of the electricity he sent skittering over her skin.

She hissed.

"Thought you were worried about using your power on other people."

"Please, that's barely above the level of static." He did it again, and she pressed back against his chest and clutched at his left hand. "Some magic is useful to have."

The egotistical bastard was showing off.

"Says the man who signed a _contract_ and bound _himself_ to _me_ ," she shot back. Almost desperate to distract him from the magic. God, she was going to collapse.

"Wha?"

She chuckled weakly and struggled to shift the grip of their left hands so that she could hook her ring finger and thumb around his ring. She brought their hands upward so that she could press his wedding band against her lips. She lifted her eyes so that she could watch him.

Suddenly, she felt powerful.

She focused on the ring, a symbol. It wasn't a key, no, not a magical object. But she wasn't opening an inter-dimensional door. He was already here. The ring itself was a symbol. A focus, based on a contract. And she _was_ a mage who worked from contracts. Both of them had made vows to each other through that paper, laws – yes – but also of _heart_ and _soul_. They exchanged rings that stood in for that paper. She pushed power, a power that – technically – controlled, though she preferred not to use it in that way, into the gold. One of the best metals for magic.

She thought of all the words he just said. Of his need. Of hers.

And she pulled at that bond, through the ring.

"Laxus," she said. Clear. Lips almost brushing the metal.

His eyebrows rose an inch and his mouth opened.

"Laxus," this time her lips touched the ring and his eyelids fell closed. She licked her lips and her tongue touched the metal, he gave a violent shake which caused him to clutch at her thigh, and send another wave of lightning over her. True lightning this time, not static, like before.

She gasped.

His head dropped to her shoulder. "Say it again."

"Laxus."

He moaned, and she felt the sound in every inch of her body. This was _not_ how she expected things to go. She hadn't even considered using her magic to... until he had... but... but _damn_. It felt good!

"Laxus?" she asked, sweetly. Hearing that sound again, and loving it. "Do I get in the tub now?"

"No," he told her in an unsteady voice. "No." He kissed her shoulder. Her throat. Ran his tongue along the shell of her ear until _she_ was the one filling the bathroom with noise. She scowled, but before she could say anything, take back control, he covered her mouth with his right hand.

She smiled behind it. Knowing that he could have made her let go of his left, if he wanted. He did not want. He _very_ obviously, very obviously did not want.

"No. I'm not going to be able to keep control of my magic if you keep that shit up, and then I'll probably end up electrocuting you for real if you're in water."

She pouted. What a waste of a good bath.

Grinning as if he could read her thoughts, he turned off the water and picked her up. Actually _picked her up_ and carried her back into the bedroom.

In doing so, he happened to release her mouth. She smiled.

"You should really ask permission before doing things like that..." she kissed his palm – his left palm – and _yanked_ with her magic, "Laxus."

He gasped and lost control of his legs.

They didn't exactly make it to the bed.

She couldn't actually say she minded, and he certainly didn't complain.

0000X0000


	4. Print

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which reporters and their sources cause drama.

Family

Chapter Four

Print

She woke to her name being said over and over and over again somewhere in the general vicinity of her stomach. The vibrations of the voice were unusual and unfamiliar.

"Uhh?"

"I'm going to take a shower? Want to join me?"

She pulled a pillow, his probably, over her face. "Unng? Too early."

He chuckled, "It's ten."

"Too early," she insisted.

"Suit yourself. I'm ordering in food after. Want anything?"

"Ask again."

"I'm ordering in-"

She threw the pillow at him. Missed. He laughed and threw it back. She grunted. It was a pillow, but it hurt! But it was a pillow again, now that it was next to her, and she curled around it.

She was asleep before the door closed.

0000

When she woke, he was eating.

"Didn't want to push it," he told her, realizing she was up without her having to say anything, "and make you grouchy. Got fruit and yogurt. We can always order more if you want more."

"No, no. That's good. Thank you." She slipped out of the bed, careful to wrap the blanket around her. Laxus, in all of his nude glory, obviously did not mind the openness, but despite the day before, she clung to the blanket. Not yet so comfortable.

As she sat, she noticed he still had the dark red and black tattoo on his hip, just as he said he would.

When he had removed her dress yesterday, she had put her hand over her birth control charm, prepared to wipe it away. That was, after all, the whole purpose, the whole reason-

But he had stopped her.

And she had almost freaked out.

Then he said maybe here, in _this_ room, they would leave them on. In another day, they would go to the northwest, to a lake and caves, and they could wipe them away. But yesterday she had been a virgin, and yesterday was the first time anyone had touched her, and he suggested that it be about _her_ and not about the curse.

And she was _moved_.

So today they both still wore their protection. Tomorrow morning they would gather their bags. They would walk outside. She would take out her Gemini key, and Laxus' power would transport them away. And then it would stop being about her. About him.

It would be about them, and the darkness that haunted their blood.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Mmm," she said around an apple slice. "You get a paper with the food? We need to decide who's paying for dinner."

She could tell that he knew her teasing was somewhat forced, but he didn't question her about it.

"I didn't. But I can. Hold here, I'll be right back."

He stood to leave the room, and she nearly shrieked at him, "Laxus! Put on clothes!"

"I was just going to use the intercom to order up," he told her. "Not actually _leave_."

"O-oh..." she blushed. "Well what about when they deliver it?"

He looked down at himself and back up at her. Grinned. Grinned wide enough that he showed off his canines, which was rare for him. Or she thought was rare for him. Maybe he grinned more often in private. She'd find out, soon enough. "I'll reach around the door."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to take a bath, since I didn't get one yesterday. I'll read the paper when I'm done." She turned, then turned back. Glared. "Not that I can imagine how exactly you would do it, but … no cheating."

She slammed the door to the bathroom behind her, dropped the blanket on the lounge, and turned on the taps.

Ah, this was going to be nice.

Shyly, she glanced in the mirror at her own reflection, and then with more determination she turned to full-on study herself. To discover this new woman in the mirror. To look deeply at her.

"At Lucy Dreyar," she murmured.

She didn't look all that different. The jewelry was weird and on the wrong hand, and the bruises were smaller and in … odder locations ... than she normally had bruises, but other than that, she looked pretty much the same way she always did.

She was a _wife_. She had a _husband_.

She didn't quite feel it. Not here. Here it could be … could be a fling. If she were the sort of person who had flings. Which she wasn't. But it could be a fling. It _could be_.

If not for the rings.

She licked her lips. Put her left thumb against the smooth gold of the bands, and twisted them. Once. Twice. Three times around the circumference of her finger.

"Laxus," she whispered. Quieter than the thundering sound of the water running behind her. Locked door between them. Him waiting on the other side of the room, for a newspaper, not focused on...

"Lucy?" His voice was curious, maybe concerned. "Did you..."

She laughed and bounced over to the door, throwing it open, forgetting the lack of a blanket and her own earlier modesty. "That is so going to come in useful. Don't you think?"

"Or fucking annoying as all hell. Do your spirits feel like this when you call them?" he took her hand and pulled her to him. He kissed her. He was going to kiss her. She _thought_ he was going to kiss her. He didn't kiss her.

Her laughter petered out into shallow breaths and hot air. "I've never asked. I don't think I will."

"Fucking hope not," he grunted. "Torture to feel like this with nothing on the other side. Luckily," he put his forehead against hers when she would have much preferred his lips, "I have something on this side."

There was a knock at the door, and Laxus grimaced as he pushed her behind the bathroom wall slightly and went to get their paper.

She heard him grumble his thanks at a stuttering female voice, which made Lucy giggle, bringing her out of her own haze enough to allow her freedom of movement again. She returned to the tub and got in the bath.

Laxus decided to join her in the bathroom instead of staying in the outer room. She didn't know why, but she didn't mind. He shoved the blanket aside and sat on the lounge, leafing through the paper while she drifted in a contented dream of warm water and comfort.

When a menacing chuckle began to echo and fill the room, tainting that dream, she opened her eyes.

Laxus had a good grip on the paper and was looking at her like a mad man.

"Jason get the scoop?" she asked calmly. As if the man weren't acting like a lunatic.

"He did... not." His grin was so big it could break his face. "It's a _Sorcerer's_ evening sheet copy, but by someone named Bobbi."

"She's younger," Lucy said, remembering a bubbly girl who ran errands for the reporters in the office back when she'd worked for the magazine.

"Don't care. Not important. Here's what's important. Know who Bobbi got it from? Who saw us?"

Oh, the tone of his voice. Warily she straightened her spine.

"Who?"

"Guess."

"I would _really_ rather not."

"Come on, Lucy..."

"One of ours?"

"Thank shit, no. But someone we know."

She considered. Only a Fairy Tail member, she thought, would be too shocked to see them go into an office to marry and _not_ try and talk to them. Any other guild person would have jumped them. Who would see, but not approach?

"A council member?"

He grinned, not pleasantly. "Not a current one. And maybe I should say _iffy_ on that 'not one of ours' question."

Her blood froze. She looked at him. "No way."

"Mmm."

"Jellal?!"

Laxus nodded.

"Oh god! Why would he call a _reporter_ of all people?!" she shouted. Standing in the tub. Almost slipping as she reached for the paper.

  
_XXX_

_SECRET ELOPMENT:_

_FAIRY TAIL'S LAXUS DREYAR AND LUCY HEARTFILIA WED_

_by Bobbi Bobbi_

_(_ Sorcerer's Weekly _) Inquiries to the status of one former SW employee led this intrepid reporter to Crocus' central district today to read through stacks of official government reports. Within an hour, this reporter had confirmed the inquirer's suspicion._

_At 8:45 Friday morning, Laxus Dreyar of Fairy Tail, grandson of Wizard- Saint Makarov Dreyar, and famed lightning dragon slayer who took down Wizard-Saint Jura in x791's GMGs was married to the former Lucy Heartfilia, now Lucy Dreyar, also of Fairy Tail, celestial spirit mage who, for a year, wrote for our own Sorcerer's Weekly!_

_Eyewitness reports are few, but the clerk who legalized the marriage certificate, one Margarite Milton, said of the couple,_ "They were just so beautiful! I mean, just sweet and beautiful. And I was just nervous as anything. Never expected anyone like that to come in. Never signed paper on a celebrity. But they weren't uppity, just filled the paperwork out, spoke the vow, and that was that. Mr. Dreyar did rings, too. The civil ceremonies, they don't always do rings, you know." __

_When asked about the rings, Ms. Milton and other eyewitnesses described simple gold bands, but also mentioned a pink-diamond engagement ring on the hand of our blushing bride!_

_The original eyewitness and informant, who shall remain nameless to respect his super important privacy – and let me tell you, it's super important! - came to me uncertain if any announcements had been made about this pairing before the big knot had been tied, but from all we've found, no one knew anything! He, our nameless, masked man, was extremely concerned over the reactions by the newlyweds' guild._

"Erza..." _was all he managed to say before he went pale and was dragged off by a handful of equally important and nameless masked companions!_

_The drama, dear readers! The excitement! But don't worry, this reporter will for sure be on her way to the lovely town of Magnolia in moments to get the scoop on just how Erza Scarlet, the much feared and beloved Fairy Tail's Titania, and the rest of that infamous guild respond to this amazing event!_

_So keep watch for tomorrow's Sorcerer's Weekly Evening Sheet! It's bound to be a doozy!_

_XXX_   


She stared at the article for much longer than it took to read the words. Then, she looked up at Laxus. Who was grinning like there was no tomorrow. Which there would be, of course. It was _next week_ that was suddenly questionable, for him.

"Why would he not just call Erza?" she hissed. "They're on good terms now! No way Bobbi's got an in with Jellal! I don't buy it. Why would he go to her! This makes no sense!" She threw the paper in the air. He caught it before it landed in the water.

"No clue. But by now they've got our letter and this article and at least one reporter up their ass. Erza will have Jellal's nuts pinned to a tree as soon as she can get her hands on him, which will be sooner than she can get her fucking hands on us. So he'll get his, poor bastard. I vote we change locations today."

"Seconded," she said without a moment's hesitation.

"How about somewhere remote?"

Lucy's shoulder's drooped, "...you're thinking about camping, aren't you?"

He nodded.

She groaned.

There went her lovely honeymoon.

Or.

Or.

"Or," she leaned forward into his personal space, "we could go home... and hide in your house." That house with hot water, she thought. "The place they would absolutely least suspect us to be. Magnolia."

"Damn. That would be such a good plan. _If_ we could fucking get there. But we can't. The second lightning hit anywhere in the area, the whole guild would be on that. And that's if Freed hasn't booby-trapped the place, which I'd bet money he has by now."

Lucy clicked her tongue in frustration.

"If your luck were just a _little_ better and you were _slightly_ less well-liked," he told her, "people wouldn't be this overprotective of you."

"Please," she snorted, "this is _not_ just about me. If anyone in the guild ran off and got married without Mirajane and Master and Erza's express permission, they'd be terrified. With reason. Erza being a teammate and us having, in their minds – _and in actuality_ – no previous relationship is what makes it so dangerous. _Not_ me."

"Keep tellin' yourself that," Laxus drawled.

"We leave tonight. We go somewhere where we can rent cabins or something? And I'll have one of my spirits, Gemini probably, rent the room. They'll never even know we're there. I'll send them out for food, too. We don't have to _camp_ , but we can still have privacy. Sound okay?"

He leaned back against the wall and, for the first time since he sat with the paper, gave her his full attention. "Sounds great. You gunna finish that bath?"

She looked down at herself and then back at the tub, and then at his eyes. And then at the ring on her hand.

"Don't say it," he warned her. "Not yet."

She smiled. "I think there might come a time when I won't actually have to say it. I can almost feel you buzzing through it..." her voice drifted off as he reached out and took her hand.

"You don't have to go through the ring to find me," he told her. Electricity raced over her skin, burning off stray drops of moisture. "Come on. Thought we'd have longer at this place. Might as well make the most of it," he grinned down at her.

"Mmm," she agreed. "And remember that Erza will at least get revenge for us on Jellal, even if we're also in for trouble?"

He laughed, "Yeah, that too."

0000

_FAIRY CHAOS!_

_FAIRY TAIL REACTS TO THE MOST UNEXPECTED UNION EVER!_

_By Bobbi Bobbi_

_(_ Sorcerer's Weekly _) As promised, this reporter traveled at all speed to the charming town of Magnolia, home to the famous (or infamous!) guild FAIRY TAIL, which our readers will of course recognize as that of the two recently married mages, LAXUS and LUCY DREYAR._

_For the casual traveler, Magnolia is a wonderful place to visit with great scenery, wonderful cafes, and sometimes an entire guild of mages running rampant in the streets crying and screaming. For that, dear readers, was the scene I came upon when I approached the Fairy Tail guild hall._

_Fights in the streets between card mage, Cana, and plant mage, Droy. A small brawl involving the youngest Strauss, Lissana, the guild's retired fourth master, Macao, the generally stoic Nab, and the dancing Vijeeter. The tears of small children and furry creatures as the much-cherished Wendy Marvell sat against a tree cuddling her companion Carla, both mourning at having missed such an important event in the life of their dear friend. The water mage, Juvia Lockster tucked into a corner of the entry, sobbing with joy for the marriage of her guild mates. One of the few notes of happiness in the craze, dear reader!_

_At which point, this reporter finally worked up the courage to breach the front doors of bedlam!_

_And bedlam it was. Fire! Ice! Sharp steel! Wood chips! Broken glasses! Beer steins! Rock! Screaming and yelling and the most terrifying laughter ever heard on this Earthland. Oily shadows swirled around the guild's large interior, seeming to focus on the forms of the Demon Mirajane – yes, the love of_ Sorcerer's Weekly _herself, who was darkly gleeful, and, oh, dear reader, quite chill inducing! – and Freed Justine, leader of Laxus Dreyar's personal guard, whose dull glare prompted a chill or two, as well._

_But the informant who brought this story to national attention called, in his moment of deep shock, for Erza Scarlet, and this reporter was determined to get through the melee to discover her personal response. As well as that of the Master-slash-Grandfather! Those two individuals, were this reporter's goals!_

_And goals achieved, in a spectacular way, as attack found this reporter! Titania in all her majesty, swords flying, called threat upon an intruder entering her territory. Demanding a reason for invasion. Upon stating intent, this reporter was allowed, at shouting volume, to conduct interviews with several extremely super important, the best members of FAIRY TAIL!_

_Those interviews will totally be in tomorrow's edition! Don't forget to pick up your copy!_

_XXX_   


Lucy put a hand on his shoulder. She stood behind him as he sat at the table, reading the article. They had just settled in at the small lake house when Gemini brought them dinner and the evening edition of the paper. Bobbi must have lacrima transmitted it to the entire country the second it was penned.

"You were the one who suggested eloping," she told him, successfully managing to hold back her laughter. Safe as they were in the middle of the woods, the whole thing seemed a bit funnier.

His brow was very, very low, and his voice was like gravel, "Not like any of the other options were better."

"Would have given you more time."

He snorted. "I'll survive this. I'da done the first thing? That, I wouldn't've survived."

She just smiled. Most of the time she would bet on Laxus to win, but in this, he was right. If that 'five year old zapping Natsu' scenario had happened, he would have lost to Erza and Mirajane's wrath. And it would have happened in _seconds_.

"Do you think five more days will calm them down or ramp them up more?" she slid her hands down his arms and worked at unclenching his fingers from the newspaper.

"Worse. Of course."

"Maybe we could send Virgo with a note?"

"Another one?"

That nose wrinkle was back. She was taking this as her second lesson on Laxus: Didn't like correspondence.

She nodded. "Yeah. That way they know we're okay. You'd want to know we were okay, wouldn't you?"

He sighed. "Fine."

She went to her bag and pulled out paper and a pen, and – remembering the last letter – this time she started it:

**_Everyone!_ **

**_I'm sure this was a huge surprise! So... SURPRISE! Laxus and I saw the papers... we NEVER expected Mr. Nameless and Super Important would see us there and TALK TO A FREAKING REPORTER, so we didn't expect the storm that came. We just sort of thought we could take our time, you know?_ **

**_Anyway. Sorry it was so crazy!_ **

**_But, yes, it is true. We'll be home in about five days-_ **

Laxus took the pen away from her.

_-unless we're not. We're,_ she's _an adult for fuck's sake! TWO WEEKS!-_

**_-in five days to say hi and then_ maybe _we'll take another week. Another week relaxing would be fun-_**

_-since you all royally screwed this one-_

**_-But we will come back in five days, because if we don't, probably you'll all end up destroying Magnolia again, and honestly how many times can we really get away with that?_ **

_Not many, so you assholes should really calm the fuck down. We got_ married _. I didn't murder her._

"Not really making this note better," she grumbled at him as she ripped the pen from his fingers once more. He let it go with little resistance. He seemed fine to let her write as long as he got to say what he wanted to say.

"Yeah, but they're seriously pissing me off. If I get it all out here, I'm less likely to fry them all when we get back in five or a-week-and-five days."

She rolled her eyes.

**_He has a point, he didn't murder me. Please don't be angry! You know how I was brought up, right? I just didn't want to do anything like that. I didn't need anything big or lavish. And relationships around the guild... I just really wanted... I needed..._ **

She scratched out a few words and then a whole line and started over.

**_Relationships in the guild often become property of the entire guild, and that reminded me too much of the way I was raised. I wanted to make decisions on my own about something this personal. I didn't want to make anyone upset! Not at all. Probably we should have left a longer letter... but the eloping was kind of... it happened very fast! Very ...we didn't have plans that night to leave and go get married, it just kind of happened._ **

**_Anyway, I'll talk more when I get home! Take care of one another, try not to get too injured and wear Wendy out healing your wounds-_ **

_-like you usually do. You realize she's one kid and there's like 20 of you, right?_

**_-and that Master only ever has so much money in savings to pay for damages. Try to only break things you can repair yourselves!_ **

**_Love you all;_ **

**_-Lucy Dreyar_ **

_Gramps. I'll need the book._

_-Laxus ___

__Lucy looked at the last little note, then at him, then at the paper, then back at him and lifted an eyebrow. He didn't give her an answer. Just a small smirk._ _

__"Ass," she muttered. She pulled out a key and called for Virgo, who, reliably as she always did, popped out blank-faced and ready to work. "Do you think you can make it to the guild?" Lucy looked at her carefully. Virgo might be willing to try even if she couldn't, and she didn't really want that from her. "I know Loke could make it, but Loke's being stubborn and pissy just like the rest of them right now, so I'd prefer not to mix him in with the rest."_ _

__"Of course, Princess."_ _

__"Thanks, Virgo. I appreciate it. Drop it with whoever looks sanest, or Master if they all seem too out of control."_ _

__"Yes, Princess." Virgo bowed, and dropped through the floor, tunneling through the earth to reach their maddened family._ _

__Lucy turned and looked down at him, "Who knows if it'll do any good, but maybe it'll calm them enough so that they don't instantly kill you the moment we get back to town."_ _

__He curled his hand around her hip, and rubbed his thumb so that it moved aside her shirt to brush over the flawless skin there. Eyes never breaking contact from hers. "You think they'd kill me that easily?"_ _

__"I don't know," she said, heat rising to her cheeks. "There's quite a few of them. And only one of you."_ _

__"Abandoning me rather fast, aren't you?"_ _

__She laughed at his scowl, surprised that she was able to, even as his other hand slipped up her thigh and under her skirt. "I'm not nearly as stupid as you. I plan on hiding and begging for my life. I've no personal pride to speak of. I have pride in the guild, but if it's the guild that's attacking me, well..."_ _

__"Mmm," he bent in his chair and touched his mouth to her flesh. "I guess I'll just need to give you a new pride of _me_. Then you won't hide when I'm attacked."_ _

__She gasped. "Ye-yes. That might work."_ _

__His lips curled in a smile against her, she felt it. Secretly, she knew she wouldn't betray him, of course, but she teased him just enough that he wouldn't stop. And he didn't. He didn't._ _

____

0000X0000


	5. Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lucy and Laxus return to Magnolia and begin their lives as a married couple.

Family

Chapter Five

Blood

After a less-than-perfect week away, (though not through any fault of hers or Laxus') they reentered Magnolia on foot. Laxus wasn't happy about it, but even he agreed that appearing in lightning form was a dead giveaway for his – _their_ – return. Not that they were hiding, they just wanted to be at their best advantage when they faced their friends.

 _Friends_ , Lucy snorted, as quietly as she could, but Laxus still glanced down at her as they walked through the forest that bordered the town. She shook her head at him, telling him it was nothing, and they continued as they had been before.

But, _seriously_ , the guild as a whole was being ridiculous. Though she had made sure to send letters daily – _daily!_ – each time Virgo returned, she reported that she was met with distress and anger. Distress and anger far outside the range of what was necessary, even for Fairy Tail.

Friends. Not quite friends today, at least. Today they were going to be adversaries of a sort. And for Laxus?

Well, they were soon to be Laxus' great enemies. (Not greatest, he had told her when she mentioned it, because they weren't bad ass enough. She had rolled her eyes so hard at that, she almost passed out.)

For her part, Lucy had memories of the Fantasia destruction, and she imagined how much worse it could be. Laxus' muscles had grown more and more tense with each gleeful interview Bobbie Bobbie published.

It wasn't going to be painless.

Erza's interview had been predictably overprotective, and threatening. Flaying, castration, etc etc. Mira's, ominous. Something about chains, interrogations, and dresses; Lucy had skimmed over it, horrified enough by the picture Bobbie had included to not want any more information.

Laxus' triad had alternated between crying, scorn, and being disgustingly lecherous, and it was no mystery as to who was exuding what emotion. There were challenges from all corners. There were – it was obvious even through the print – disappointed, even betrayed sentiments of disbelief from more than a few of them.

Master Makarov had not sat for an interview with the reporter.

Master Makarov had not sent a personal reply with Virgo. He'd accepted Lucy's letters, but accepted them silently and never replied.

Laxus was worried about that, she knew. Heck, she was worried about that.

But what was done, was done. And they would stand together. They had read each interview as the papers were delivered, him sitting, and her reading over his shoulder, and each time he told her it would be okay. And each time she agreed: The people in their guild were lunatics, and they would get used to the idea of their marriage.

Deep down, she knew, they were both a little concerned that this wasn't going to be as easy as they had hoped, and they hadn't thought it was going to be easy, at all.

"Open the Gate of the Twins," Lucy said as they reached the city limits. "Gemi, Mini. Freed has likely covered Magnolia with runes. I need you to take his form and give us a work-around so we can get to the safety of an inn."

They had decided against going to either his home or her apartment assuming they would be the most dangerous. Also that people would be stationed there to ambush them.

"There is one two blocks in, and I can make a small pass-through in the barrier, Lucy-sama."

"Virgo and Aries. Please continue hiding our scent. We're in dragon slayer territory now. Gemini, create a false trail, if you can. All good?" She looked at her husband and her spirits.

"Works for me," Laxus nodded, "if they can do it."

"We can do it, Princess."

"I'm sorry, but I will do my best," Aries bobbed in a quick bow.

"Okay. Laxus, can you order the room? I think it'll take threats, major threats, to keep them from gossiping."

Laxus looked from her to Gemini-Freed, "Or we can lock the place down until dawn." When she would have protested he lifted a hand, "Just against spreading the story. A very specific runic rule. They can come and go, they just can't talk about us. Freed can do it; I've seen him."

She looked at her spirit, "Can you do it?"

He flexed his Freed-hands. "Yes, Lucy-sama."

"That's going to get annoying," she muttered.

"You have no idea," Laxus smirked in response.

"Considering the amount of nicknames I've acquired since joining the guild, I'd disagree. I have a very good idea," she sighed. "Come on. Let's go."

Gemini-Freed wrote as they walked, and though the clerk at the front desk gasped to see them, she did not say either of their names. In fact, she didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry," Lucy told her, knowing that she would actually sound sorry, whereas Laxus wouldn't care, "but we're trying to go for a low profile here. We need a room for the night, and we need to keep it quiet, so we're putting a tiny spell of silence on you when it comes to us being here, okay? It won't hurt you, we promise. It just means you can't say anything about us, and that's it, okay?"

The clerk nodded. Wide-eyed and trembling. Lucy couldn't tell if it was with excitement or fear. Perhaps it was a little of both.

"Is the room on the top floor available?" Laxus asked.

"Yes," the young woman said, finally able to say something.

"We'll take that one, then." He looked at the book on the counter, "And we're just going to mark it as occupied, but leave the occupant unnamed, yeah?"

"Yes, sir."

Lucy was able to tell this time that the trembling was far more fear than excitement. Laxus had gone into intimidation mode.

Lucy grabbed desk pen and put an X next to the room number, skipping to follow Laxus, who had already started up the stairs.

"Thank you!" she called over her shoulder to the young woman. "Have a good night!"

"You, too, ma'am. And... and congratulations!"

She grinned. If she turned now, the shaking would probably be excitement. Unable to help herself, she laughed.

"What is it?" Laxus asked, grunting as he threw open the door to a modest, but pretty room. He tossed their bags unceremoniously on the floor and headed to the bathroom.

"Just happy to be home, I think."

"At least one of us is."

She laughed again. "Ah, Laxus, they'll come around."

He shrugged because they both knew it was true. But they also both knew that they'd have to deal with a touch of bedlam before that happen.

"They're a bunch of fucking exhausting drama queens," he said, washing his hands and face.

"No! Are they really? I had no idea!"

He glared at her reflection in the mirror, and she graced him with her winningest smile.

"And you're not much better. Ugh, I hate walking so far. I need to shower. You staying?"

She shook her head, "I'm going to read for a bit. I'll take a bath after. Want me to order up some food for when you get out?"

"Nah, I'm good for now."

She spun to leave, but before she could cross the threshold, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"I was hoping you'd stay," he said, mouth an inch from hers. Teasing her.

This was another lesson in Laxus that she'd picked up on in the last week. He was a tease. And a jerk. (Though she knew the last one already!) But she'd done her best to hold on to the vestiges of her pride and not let his teasing ways get the better of her. At least, not _every_ time. He was more experienced at this sort of thing, after all.

"Well, I don't like showers all that much," she told him, lifting just enough (and quickly enough) to kiss him, and then pull away. When she shut the bathroom door behind her with a clear and solid _click_ , it felt something like a victory.

And with Laxus as a husband, every victory was something to celebrate.

She grinned.

0000

"I can go in by myself," Lucy suggested. "You know... Test the waters..."

He snorted, "Sending you in alone won't go well for me, even if I thought that was a good idea, and I absolutely do not. We go together. Or send another note-"

"Thought you weren't big on notes."

"-and haul ass for another week."

She laughed, "That's not going to calm them down either."

"Hardly my fault they're acting like fuckin' children."

"Not like we didn't realize they would." She reached for hand. "Come on. United front. _We're married, it's done, rest of it is none of your business_. Cross your arms. Glare some. That's all you've gotta do, and they'll buy it. I'm the one they're going to grill for days on end."

"You could tell the whole story."

"And how do you think _that'll_ go over?" she rolled her eyes.

"Gramps'll feel guilty, everyone else'll be mad or sad or pitiful-"

"Let's see if we can get them to be happy. We're their family, separately. Now we're their family in a union. They should be happy, even if they're upset we did it in secret. I don't want anyone worrying about the other."

"Except me."

"Except us, and my spirits. No one else."

"Then let's go," he gave a big gust of a sigh. Big enough that even Wendy might have been impressed, had she seen. Though Lucy was hardly surprised, considering the size of his chest and the had-to-be-correlating size of his lungs.

They drew stares as they walked down the street. Gossipy-sounding whispers drifted around them like flies around garbage. No one beat them to the guild doors, and no one left the guild to meet them in the street, but if Natsu or Wendy or Gajeel were in the building they would know Lucy and Laxus were coming simply by the sound of their names being repeated over and over and over again.

"Um," Lucy started, "is it just me, or is it a little weird that we haven't run into anyone?"

"Normally I'd say _just you_ , cuz there are tons of times I walk through town and don't see anybody, but yeah. This is some freaky shit," he glared at the large, closed door they had both stopped in front of. "Fuck it," he muttered, and reached for the handle, pushing the thing open, and holding it so that she could walk in...

"You're _banished_ , you idiot brat!"

Those were the words that greeted them when they stepped hand-in-hand into their guild. The Master was giant and he glared at his grandson as if Laxus had committed a sin worse than murder.

It took half a second for the words to sink into her, Laxus, and the rest of the completely silent guild's ears (all of them, all of them but Gildarts). When they did, Laxus shrugged and turned around. Pulling her with him, of course. And the two of them left the way they came.

Silence was followed by screaming, and dozens of hands reached through the doors to pull them back inside.

"My office. Now." Makarov had resumed his normal size, but he was clearly furious. Still somehow calm, Laxus and Lucy walked through the crowd – ignoring the few bravely whispered questions – and met their Master at the door to his office. "Inside," the old man growled.

Lucy found she trembled slightly, and she felt Laxus' hand tighten around hers. She was grateful to realize he hadn't released her.

Intimidation and jealousy, she had expected. _They_ had expected. This was rage. Fury. This was something else altogether.

"Do you know what you've done?" Makarov hissed at his grandson. His expression was a study in negative emotion. Rage was dominant, but being close to him now, she was able to see so much more there. Horror. Guilt. Depression. Hopelessness. "Do you know what you've done?"

And suddenly Lucy understood. Laxus had been unaware of his family curse. Makarov, however, was not.

"Yes," she told him. "He knows, and so do I. It was for that reason that I chose him, Master. It was because of his curse that I asked for him, and no other. I'm hoping he will save me."

Laxus' hand unclenched as his grandfather's glare shifted targets. Lucy flexed her fingers and hunched under the considerable power of one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

" _You, you_ know?"

"Hold up, old man; _you_ know?! How come you never bothered to fucking tell _me_? How _would_ I know? How would I know to _not do what I did_?! I could have knocked up and killed some random woman years ago. No one told me shit."

"Marriage is part of it," Makarov tossed back. "Wouldn't have mattered until then. And you weren't in the headspace for marriage."

Lucy laughed. It was sort of a laugh. She felt sick, infected, with Master Makarov's emotions and her own near mistake, "I didn't see that. My original plan wouldn't have worked then. How funny."

"Sure," Laxus grumbled, "hilarious."

"You should be happy," she grinned. It was more of a grin than the laugh was a laugh. "You were right. We needed to marry."

"I just thought Erza and Mira would kill me if I got you pregnant without owning up to it. Didn't have shit to do with my side of this thing."

"Yes. Yes. I know. Good thing, though. Would have worked the normal way, I guess? I mean, you're not cursed without marriage? So I'm not actually helping your bloodline?" She glanced back at the Master, question in her expression, watching as he relaxed – if only slightly.

"No, we're cursed either way, but with varying outcomes for the women: Only wives die," Makarov said. "Non-married women just leave."

Lucy smiled. "The leaving might have something to do with personalities, you realize. If Ivan's mistresses are the evidence you're going by..."

Master finally unbent enough to chuckle. "Yes. You are not wrong. Dreyar men certainly have their faults, and my son is by far the worst of us, but I had the curse analyzed years ago, and it is one of the truths inherent in the magic."

"Interesting." She chewed her bottom lip, considering the new information.

"But you think for some reason Laxus having this curse will save you," Makarov prompted.

"I do."

"Why."

Lucy looked at the man who was now her husband. Who shrugged. "Your choice, Lucy. But you know he can keep a secret," he shot the man a glare, "and he has his uses. And … and …" Laxus cleared his throat, glancing at Master and then looking back to her, "we haven't actually gone into it, but he's your family, now. I mean, I know guild, family, whatever. But legally. If that makes some sort of difference to you."

Her heart skittered. As little as they knew of one another, he knew her that well. It did make a difference. A very significant difference. To an orphan. To a orphan of neglect as well as death. Yes, it made a difference.

She swallowed at the realization, and watched the same dawn on the Master's. It was all she needed.

"There is a bloodline curse on me, on my family as well. At the moment, it gives me 10 months to 10 years left to live, and it is dependent on pregnancy. It is my theory that the Dreyar curse might react with mine in a way that will cancel out both."

The old man's eyebrows drew together. "That isn't the only possible outcome."

"We're aware," Laxus answered.

"But a chance is better than no chance," she said.

Master looked at the two of them. One. Then the other. Back and forth. Finally he asked, "Can you be happy this way?"

"Yes," she told him.

"Yeah," Laxus agreed. And again Lucy's heart skittered, because he wasn't lying. She would be able to tell that, she thought. If they survived – if she survived – they would manage happiness.

"Lucy is optimism and joy, Laxus is determined and stubborn..." Makarov muttered to himself. "Both loyal... Could work. Could work, if the curse... curses..." He tapped the desk. "Go to Porlyusica as soon as it happens. Tell her, too. You'll want someone monitoring you for any problems bloodline curses could cause, and I assume you're keeping the rest of the guild out of it, including Wendy."

"Yes," was her empathetic agreement. "And I will go to Porlyusica. It isn't a bad idea."

The tension in Laxus had drained away, and it helped Lucy to relax as well. Finally. Finally. _Finally_. Master smiled.

"Okay, then. I forgive you both. You're no longer banished, you reckless brat. But no more of this impulsive shit. Keep me informed. And welcome to the family, Lucy."

Her muscles loosened and she beamed at his softening expression. "Thank you, Master."

Bending, the old man opened a drawer and pulled out a red leather bound book and put it on the desk. "Not that I wasn't pissed off, but here it is, boy. Put her in."

Lucy looked up at Laxus, then at Makarov and the book. "A family register? That was the book you were talking about? Why be so mysterious?" Not that she wasn't happy. She even felt herself flushing, slightly. Just as she had when he reminded her that she _was_ family. But, still, something like that was hardly deserving of the fanfare he seemed to be giving it.

"It's not just a register," Laxus grunted, pulling the book across the table and opening it up. "It's a sort of protection, I guess. I don't really understand it."

Makarov nodded. "It connects us to one another. Harder to lose track of you with the book to guide us. If Laxus were in trouble on a mission, for example, unable to get in touch, and I needed to locate him, I could use his name in the book to find him."

Laxus nodded.

She tilted her head to the side. "So you could have come to us as soon as you found out we had run away to get married? And you didn't?"

"I knew you'd come back. And I knew I couldn't leave the guild the way it was. The brats would have leveled the place and the town and probably half the country. By the time I got the letter, it was already done."

Laxus nodded, again. This time it was a decidedly smug nod. She frowned at him a little. He could have mentioned that, too.

Whatever.

"Can it do anything else besides location?"

"You can get a sense of a person. Hurt, or not. Happy, or not. Vague. In the most desperate of situations, it is possible to reach out to another who is also in the book, even if you don't actually have the book on your person."

"Ah! So that's how you called for him on Tenrou!"

"Correct. It's a blood bond, and made through the family spell on this register."

"How amazing," she whispered. And it was.

Laxus opened the thing, it was a thin book, only going as far back as his great grandfather, since his great grandfather was the first wizard in their family line, but there were also baby pictures and wedding pictures in the thing, so it was thicker than it would have been if the register were nothing more than a list of names in a family cursed with only-children.

"Sorry, Lucy," he told her, reaching for her hand, "but this takes a little blood."

She smiled up at him, "It's okay. I expected that. Well, Master sort of said that, already, but I'd know, anyway. I've read about magic like this! Really, it's wonderful!" She watched as he took the letter opener his grandfather handed him and tried not to wince as her husband slit the skin of her thumb before pressing it to the paper next to his own, much smaller (how old had he been when he was entered, she wondered) thumb print and name.

"Sign here," he told her, after waiting a moment for the blood to completely dry.

Sucking on her thumb a bit, she took the offered quill and did as told. Again she signed _Lucy Dreyar_. The _D_ was a large, looping flourish of a letter, and she enjoyed writing it. And just so did she enjoy the hanging _y_ in the middle, tying it off like a knot.

She would very much like signing that name, she decided.

Through her ring, she could feel her husband's power spike. Lucy smiled.

She laughed.

"I have an odd desire to play hide-and-go-seek, suddenly."

"Yeah, no," Laxus drawled.

Makarov, she noticed, was continuing to look from her face to his grandson's face, and each time he did, his expression took on more light. By the time Lucy set down the quill, Master's eyes had become a study in joy.

Though, she could still see concern in the depths. He was too wise a man to forget truths. But also wise enough to accept a gift when presented to him. And family, Lucy knew, was a gift.

And she was family.

She had a family.

Once again, Lucy had a family, bound by blood.

She started to cry – though, she was still smiling – and she walked around the large desk to hug the small man who had accepted her, and who had granted her, her Fairy-Tail dream all those years ago.

"Thank you for accepting me into your family, Grandfather. I hope I don't disappoint you too much."

At which point there was no way the old man would be mad at her, or Laxus. He demanded a party, then and there, and would hear nothing of dissent from anyone else in the guild.

No castration, no chains, no destruction. So Laxus had a few hours reprieve where he did as she suggested: Told people it was none of their business. Eventually (a very quick eventually, because Laxus had a very intimidating glare, and Makarov was suddenly so very supportive) they stopped asking.

Lucy, however, spent the party in the eye of a mob of women who wept and raged and, eventually (a very quick eventually, because she could still feel a pin-prick of pain in her thumb, reminding her of the register, reminding her of her new status quo, which made her smile so large and so true as to not be distrusted) hugged her in congratulations. They told her how pretty the ring was and asked her what dress she wore. They wanted to know where they had spent the week.

Cana and Happy made attempts at naughtier questions, but Mira and Carla shot them down. Cana was predictably unrepentant. Happy was predictably ashamed to have upset the girl he was crushing on.

The party lasted so many hours, deep into the night, and Lucy was sure that no one – save the Master and perhaps Wendy – was satisfied with what had happened, but the guild was still standing and Laxus was still alive.

Lucy decided that would be yet another victory.

Natsu had at several points in the day been thrown across the building, a twitching, electrocuted mess, but no one else had bothered to put up a fight. Erza had said something to her husband, and Gray, too. Lucy could guess the general idea if not the actual words, and it was sweet of them.

All of it, even the suspicion and the wariness warmed her.

This was family. This was home.

Even the shadows inside of her – of them – could not take that away.

It was after midnight when she felt herself being lifted from behind a table, where she had decided to hide during an impromptu beer-balloon fight. Apparently she'd fallen asleep.

"Come on, Lucy," Laxus pushed her hair out of her face and was careful to straighten her skirt when he picked her up. "We're in the clear, now. Let's go to my place."

"Cuz you have tall doors?" she mumbled, drowsily.

"Yeah. Cuz I have tall doors. Ceilings, too."

"Cool. Cool."

Mira's hand – Lucy could tell it was Mira even before she spoke – touched her arm. "Be careful going home."

"Will do," her husband grunted.

"G'ight."

"Goodnight, Lucy. And congratulations, both of you."

The night air was cool. Lucy was asleep again in moments.

0000

She was able to handle them all at the guild because they had been drunk and competing with one another as much as trying to get at her. Plus, she'd been able to deflect them, sometimes to Laxus and Makarov. But handling them away from the guild was different.

She was outside of her apartment, about to go up and begin sorting the stuff she would transfer to Laxus' house...

Her house.

Her house... and she noticed the open window.

"Natsu," she whispered. "Great."

"Lucy!" her partner shouted out from between the curtains. "Why are you just standing there? Come inside! Happy and I want to talk to you!"

With a sigh, she ran upstairs to meet her best friend. He was her best friend. Sure, this was going to be exhausting, but he _was_ her best friend. "Natsu, you better not have-"

Throwing the door open, she saw Natsu sprawled on the floor, Happy talking the couch, Erza on the chair, and Gray leaning against the sink.

The original team.

"Hi, guys." She didn't think her voice stuttered. But she was nervous.

"Lucy!" Natsu lifted his arms in celebration. "Where have you been?"

She laughed, "At home. At a home with bigger doors. We chose to live at Laxus' place over mine. He has more room."

Erza blushed, "So you're already living with him?"

"Yes. I planned on prepping some of my stuff to move over this week. I'm hoping to have everything cleaned out by then, so I can let the lease go."

"We," Gray shifted against the wall, "were hoping to get time with you."

"Sure," Lucy again tried not to tense up. "Maybe... Natsu, could you go grab us all lunch? I'll get started, then we can eat and talk here?" She pushed jewels from her pocket and held the money out to him.

"We could go to the guild and eat," Natsu suggested.

"But then we wouldn't get to talk, and I have to get things done here," she countered.

"Why isn't Laxus helping you?" Erza huffed.

"He's at the house, cleaning things up there for what furniture and odds and ends I'm bringing with me. If he gets his stuff situated before I finish here, he's coming to help. It's just who finishes first."

She held her hands out to Natsu, again presenting the money. "I need to get started. Take this. Get me something tasty, please."

Natsu grinned and took Gray's order. He then pissed Erza off by mentioning cake wasn't lunch. She chased him from the apartment, leaving behind Lucy and Gray.

"You should have told us," Gray said, quietly. Calmly.

Lucy shrugged. "Didn't want to. You read the letters, surely. I wanted something for myself, so I took it. The rest of you do that all the time, why can't I?"

"What are you saying?"

"Look at you, Gray? Who let you in here? Who ever lets you in here? Have I ever opened the door for you? Offered you food before you took it from my kitchen? How often do you clean up after the messes you and Natsu make? Anywhere, but also here? In my home. You wreck things and leave. So I decided to think of myself first, for once." She smiled at her friend, "And I'm happy I did."

"How long? How long have you been together?"

"The first time..." they'd covered this a few days before. Lucy could use her experience hunting his story, his curse, as a basis, and Natsu wouldn't be able to sense a lie in it. "Obviously I noticed him right off the bat, who wouldn't, though his attitude was a turn off. But after Tenrou, things changed. Officially, how long? Three months. But that hardly explains everything."

"Three months isn't very long."

"No, I suppose it's not. But it was three months of _me_ and _him_. Me going to him. Me looking at him. No one interrupting. No one trying to stop me. No one questioning on anything else. I was able to see him as he was without interference. And I liked what I saw. When he suggested marriage last week, it was no real stretch for me. I needed and wanted him. So we left. And now we're married. And that's how it is, Gray. That's how it is."

"I just wish you had told us," Erza said from behind her, coming in the door with Natsu. Both carrying food and drink.

Lucy snorted. "That's a bit hypocritical, isn't it? Remember when you, Gray disappeared with Juvia for a year without telling _me_? Or you, Erza? Also for a year? Or you, Natsu. Sure, you put a note telling me you'd be back in a year, but you didn't tell me where you were going, and you never did me the courtesy of contacting me to let me know you were safe and well. Remember that time when the three of you abandoned me to follow your own paths? Well maybe this is me doing something similar. But I'll ask you to not forget this: I left a note in my wake telling you what I was doing. I was gone for _only one week_ , and I made sure to send a letter every single day so that you would know I was safe and well.

"I would appreciate it if instead of judging me, you instead treated me like a person who gave proper consideration for her actions. Because though we did elope, our behavior wasn't overly risky or unmeasured. We didn't act until we knew we were safe, and we only acted because it was what we thought was the best and most desired idea."

Lucy sat, finally, on the floor in front of her coffee table (which she wouldn't be taking as Laxus had a much nicer one), pulling her sandwich to her. She began eating while her slightly dumbfounded teammates gathered themselves after her snappy lecture.

When she was halfway through her lunch, Erza bowed from her seated position. "I'm sorry, Lucy. You're right. It's only because I think of you so much as a younger sister that I feel a need to protect you, and I forget that you are also an adult and should be allowed to make your own life choices. I – I – I don't know that I would ever pair you with Laxus, but he is a good man at heart. And he will take care of you."

Smiling, Lucy nodded, "It's okay, Erza. I know why you're protective. And I'm proud that you think of me that way! I just also want you to see that I should be able to make my own decisions. And I agree. Laxus will take very good care of me."

Her smile slid into a slightly less innocent grin, which she wouldn't have been capable of a week before. It caused Erza to blush, even though Lucy hadn't expanded upon her husband's _good care_.

Gray didn't look happy at all at the innuendo, and Natsu was seemingly completely lost. Happy, however, had a twisted glint in his big eyes, and Lucy was certain he was going to make a dirty comment. Luckily, Laxus chose that minute to knock on the door.

"Lucy, can I come in?"

"Yes! It's unlocked!"

She giggled at just how large he appeared in her doorway.

"Well. At least you don't have to turn sideways," she allowed.

He grunted, ducking slightly, though only his hair would have touched the frame. "Yo," he told the gathered Fairy Tail group. Looking completely unconcerned by their presence. He turned to her, "You look like you got all of nothing done."

"Correct! Look at you! So smart!" She smiled again at his indignant snort. "Sorry. I was cornered," she tilted her head to indicate her team. "Still, shouldn't take too long. I'll have my spirits help."

Her husband looked around the room. "What big stuff are you taking? You said _chair_ , but which one?"

Lucy pointed to the plush, rounded seat Erza was currently reclining on. "That, the bookshelf, and the desk. If you weren't able to free up enough closet space, I'll also need the chest of drawers."

"Chair can go by the window in the living room, bookshelf there, too, desk in the bedroom. I think I got enough closet space, but might as well take the chest. Just in case." He looked them over, "Yeah, none of them look too heavy, I can carry them outside and do a controlled teleport, no problem."

"Well that's a relief. Taurus could haul any of the heavy things, too, but teleporting them is so much faster! Gemini-"

"Let me do it," he interrupted her. "Gemini was good for the Star Dress and keeping you safe, but not scorching your stuff... well, we're in no real hurry, are we? I've got it, Lucy." He took another look around the room.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to hop outside. Gray, you toss me the desk chair and desk out the window. I'll jump home and drop those off. While I'm gone, haul down what you can, maybe the chair, so it's there when I get back... got it?"

Lucy found herself impressed. Laxus was just talking as if everything had been addressed and put aside. He talked to her team as if their concerns couldn't touch him and didn't bother him. And it seemed to work on the others, since none of them argued with his orders.

While Laxus jumped out of her window, and Natsu moved her bed to make room for Gray, Lucy finished off her sandwich. Then she and Erza began to take books off of the bookcase, while Laxus blasted away.

Lucy called out Virgo and Aries, who brought boxes with them, and they begin to pack the boxes while Lucy moved from the case to her closet. She pulled out clothes, laying them out on her bed, and when that was empty, did the same with the chest of drawers.

"Is there anything you want from the kitchen?" Erza asked.

"The juicer, maybe," Lucy answered from the bathroom. "That's the only thing I _didn't_ see in his kitchen. My tea cups? Yeah. My tea cups."

Erza nodded and took another box from Lucy's spirits, as well as some of Aries' wool, and begin to pack away a few small kitchen items. Lucy had provided for a week to move, but with the help of her spirits, her team, and her husband, it took only a day.

A long day, but a good day. And by the end of it, everything felt … if not normal, _right_.

"Are you okay?" Laxus asked her when he pulled her into their size-appropriate bed that night.

"Yes. Yes, you know, I am," she turned into his body and put her cheek on his shoulder. "I think maybe everything is going to work out, Laxus."

His hand spanned her back and hip, and he kissed the crown of her head. "I think maybe you're right."

0000

Married life, she found, wasn't so different from single. Maybe she spent more time at home than on jobs than she had before, since she had someone to share the bills with, but she still went on jobs. Still went to the guild. Still read. Still wrote. Still shopped.

She was still Lucy.

And Laxus was still Laxus. He went out and exercised. He fought. He went on jobs that were S-class and harder. She had expressed an interest in going with him once or twice, but because of the difficulty, he told her he'd rather she stayed at home. She refrained from mentioning how much more danger she probably was in by being with Team Natsu. She did love her team, after all.

When her period came like clockwork after the first month of marriage, Lucy was mildly disappointed, but not too concerned. Sure, she'd expected the curse to kick in and do its job right off the bat, but it had only been two and a half weeks. It wasn't impossible that she'd missed out on her most fertile time.

Still, she went to get a physical check-up at Porlyusica's. Much as the old healer disliked humans, she was unhappily concerned with Makarov's brood. And as soon as Lucy had explained her situation, Porlyusica demanded that she visit at least once a month.

Two months in, her period was right on schedule. Lucy smiled at her husband, and went off on a job with her team. Taking way too much pleasure in beating up a group of bandits who had been threatening travelers in the northern territories off-and-on for the past year.

Even Erza was shocked at how rough Lucy got with them.

But Lucy was … _concerned_. Emotional.

Scared.

And time moved forward.

"It's been three months," Laxus told her, as if she weren't already fully aware. She sat curled up in her large chair, which was by far the most comfortable piece of furnature in Laxus' house, and she was glad she brought it with her. She was _trying_ to read a book, but Laxus' worries (and her own, as well) were taking too much of her concentration away from the story. "You said it would be fast."

"Yes." Her reply was simple because she didn't have a more complex answer. Maybe they were pushing back the effects already, just by being together. Baby or no baby. Or maybe both their curses meant she wasn't being given any chance at all.

He was trying to corner her into saying that last out loud because he knew they were both afraid of it, and he wasn't going to be the first to bring up the possibility. But she said nothing more. What they both knew didn't need saying.

Pulling the book from her hands, he forced her to look at him. "You should stop going on jobs."

"It's not the jobs. I only go when I'm on my period anymore. You, too. Wendy and Gajeel have probably caught on, and we need-"

"We have enough money in savings."

"-we need to make sure to save up as much as we can, Laxus. It's not the jobs."

He growled at her, but dropped the subject. At least for a little while.

0000

"Are you drunk?" Laxus' expression was one of shock, and Lucy was surprised could speak with his jaw unhinged. She had never seen him look like that, and couldn't help but laugh. At which point his emotions seemed to snap into place, and she saw him furious... furious at her for the first time. "I can't believe you! Lucy, you kn-"

"Don't be an idiot," she shot back, insulted he'd even consider the possibility. She tilted her head to expose her throat and lifted her wrist. "Natsu threw Gray into Cana's keg and it exploded over my legs. Smell my pulse points: There is not a drop of alcohol in my blood."

He grabbed her hand and bent so he could do as she suggested, and she trembled in rage. How dare he think that she would be so foolish as to... And then to not believe her when she told him! The jerk!

When she was about to scream at him, he unbent. But only enough so that their noses were almost touching.

"Only six months left," he murmured.

She swallowed her diatribe behind a gasp, and the hand he still held went limp. All of her did, and he caught her. Caught her and carried her upstairs to the shower where she could be cleaned of the stench of cheap bulk-booze.

For an hour, he didn't let go of her, didn't let her run from him in a temper of anger or fear or worry. Nor did he run from her for those reasons. For an hour, some part of him touched some part of her, never letting her stand apart.

No magic, but flesh. No magic, but skill. No magic, but passion.

"We'll go away again," he said, barely audible under the falling water.

"We've hardly been back-"

"No one will blame us, and we can say we're on a job."

She put her head on his chest and nodded. "We'll go away."

0000

Loke sat at her feet next to the kitchen table. "Try with someone else. Anyone else. The experiment failed."

"No," she said as the living room exploded around them. Or seemed to.

Laxus, who had also been in the house, had heard. Of course he had heard. Heard, been understandably hurt, and teleported away. Damaging all of the furniture in the departure. She blinked and realized that the fact that it was _only_ the living room furniture meant the he had kept a good amount of control.

She stood and checked the rest of the kitchen and bedrooms. He'd been in their bedroom, above the living room, and their bed was heavily scorched with a hole in the center. She supposed he had still been in bed, napping after their long night. The hole was the only other bit of damage in the house. The bathroom and kitchen and second bedroom were all fine.

Loke, who had followed her, was mute.

"No," she repeated. She sat on the scorched bed. "If this doesn't work, nothing else is going to."

"You'd have _years_ -"

Closing her eyes against the pain in her friend's voice, she curled up on the blackened blankets. "I don't care. I don't care. I don't care." She whispered. Probably more times than she meant to. Than she realized. "Dead is dead is dead." She finally said it. Finally said the word out loud. The truth. "Years or months. I don't care. I made a vow, Loke, and I won't go back on it. I bound myself to him, and I won't break that binding."

"You bound yourself for _survival_!"

"I bound myself for a _chance_. I knew before going in. All it was, all it ever was, was a chance. Please, Loke. Please. Go away. If you can't stand to see him with me, then you're going to have to not come to me in our house. And you're going to have to stop insulting him like this. Insulting _me_ like this. It doesn't help."

"Lucy," the spirit fell to his knees beside the ruin of a bed, "I just..."

"I know. I know. But it's the way things are, now. I'm not leaving him. I'm not going to sleep with someone else in an attempt to have someone else's child, and _still die_. It's foolish, but most of all it's cruel."

She wanted to cry, but she was just so tired.

So, so, so tired.

"Why would you think I would do such a terrible thing to him? Why would you think I was capable of such an act of disloyalty?"

"I didn't, of course," Loke's whimpered. "But I don't want you to die."

And to that, Lucy had no response. So instead, she slept. Hoping that by the time she woke, her husband would be home.

0000X0000

Author's Note:

And now we leave behind all that happy-go-lucky stuff and remember that this whole plot was based on a pair of death curses...

I hope you found some enjoyment of this chapter. I'll update again as soon as I'm able, but please don't expect it to be TOO soon. I have ever-growing responsibilities that make this hobby harder and harder to keep up with, but I'm not abandoning it. I'm invested in Family. I plan to see it through to the end.

Thanks so much for reading!


	6. Imprint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which life changes

Family

Chapter Six

Imprint

"I am..." she looked down at Laxus' face. He was tired. Sad. Hiding it well outside of their house, but at home, in bed, right after waking … he didn't have the time to hide the depression or exhaustion from her.

She crawled on to the bed on her knees and put her hand on his cheeks. "Laxus, I'm pregnant," she told him. He was barely even awake, but she couldn't hold the words in. This fact. This new truth. This new thing that defined her.

Seven weeks of life had been extended. Extended to maybe ten years. Maybe … maybe fifty. Sixty. Eighty? Who knew...

He looked at her as if the word confused him. Then, after seconds passed, his eyes opened wider and clearer. He didn't ask for clarifications or reassurances. He sat up, and there was color in his skin that hadn't been there in months.

He was quiet. He didn't touch her. Just looked. Just watched.

And finally, he broke. "Have you eaten?"

It wasn't exactly what she expected (or wanted) him to say. "Not yet."

"Eat, and then we'll go to Porlyusica's. By... by carriage," the healthy flesh tones greened, slightly, but he swallowed and centered himself. "Absolutely no fucking lightning travel for you."

"Lame," she sighed.

"Lucy..."

"Yes. Yes," she muttered.

"I'll shower, I guess?"

"You want me to get you something to eat, too?" she offered, though she was pretty sure he wouldn't what with the carriage ride.

"Nah." He seemed hardly involved in the question, already pulling clothes out and preparing for his shower.

Yeah, that's what she thought.

"Okay. Take your time, Laxus. It's okay."

And then he turned back to her, and he smiled. And it was one of those smiles she hadn't seen since that first month they were married. "Yeah. Yeah it is."

She lifted herself up, so that she could kiss his cheek. A sort of _thank you_. And turned to skip down the stairs to eat and get ready for the trip to see the healer. Lucy imagined the old woman wouldn't exactly be happy to see them, as she never was, but she would be happier _this_ time than she had been the last three times when they had been so worried about Lucy's inability to become pregnant.

Laxus stopped, halfway through the bathroom door, stopping her from leaving. "How long, do you think?"

"I dunno," she told him. "Few weeks, I guess. First time I was late, so it can't be more than a month." She thought of how tired she had been the past few days. How depressed. Could have been her actual life, could have been helped along by hormones.

But now, now she was exuberant, if still a little tired.

"Gramps is freaking the fuck out, we need to tell him, too."

"After we check with Porlyusica," Lucy was firm. "Just in case."

Not that Laxus had been bouncing off the walls, but that phrase stilled his energy, somewhat. _Just in case_.

Pregnancies were chancy things, and this would be chancier, yet.

"You're right." He had turned fully away, looking into the bathroom. Slightly down. "'Kay. Hag's Forest, then Gramps."

She scowled at Laxus' nickname for Porlyusica's home, but nodded. "Shower first, then lead the way."

0000

"Okay, girl, sit down." Porlyusica bustled around her small clinic area after gesturing Lucy to a small bed. Laxus, having not been forced out – for once – stood at her side. "Okay, arm out. Blood test first."

The old woman took rather a large amount of blood, putting it into several different vials, which she had already done two other times, several months earlier. And there was more bustling.

Laxus shifted, while Porlyusica's back was turned, and grabbed an extra bit of gauze to press into the puncture wound. Lucy grinned up at him.

"That's going to take time to test," the healer came back, her own chair in hand, and sat in front of both of them. "While we wait, we're going to talk. No crap, now. Don't waste my time. Answer honestly."

"Yes, Porlyusica," Lucy said, meekly. Laxus merely grunted agreement.

"We're facing a dangerous pregnancy. I need you to keep a record of how you're feeling, throughout. I won't know for sure until the tests are back, but we can hypothetically say you are somewhere between two and four weeks pregnant at the moment. Not long at all, so you won't have much in the way of comparable evidence to give me, but have you noticed anything different?"

Lucy nodded, "As soon as I noticed, I thought maybe it might have something to do with how _tired_ I've been, recently. I've felt weak. I sort of connected it to a feeling of sadness or depression, which seemed appropriate to the situation, but in hindsight there has been a physical component as well in the weakness of being so tired. That's the only thing I've noticed, though."

The old woman made notes in a book. "And you, boy. Anything you've noticed?"

"No. But I'll pay more attention, now."

"See that you do. See that you do..."

"Um," Lucy was cautious, as always, when speaking in front of the healer. "I don't know anything about my mom's pregnancy, except that it was part of the curse... so I don't know if there were any other complications. I, uh, just thought I should say that. Other than the curse, there aren't any other family ailments, though."

Porlyusica nodded. "And your grandfather's heart problems, of course. Your lungs aren't genetic, so that is not an issue. Your father or mother?"

Laxus shrugged. "Pops is healthy enough outside of being bat-shit crazy. Mom, I don't know. Like Lucy, I didn't know much about her. I'll ask Gramps after we finish here, though. We came to you first. We wanted to make sure before telling anyone."

"Surprisingly intelligent," the old woman said in a muttering voice, but not a muttering volume.

Lucy rolled her eyes. A safe thing to do since the woman was looking at the notebook again. Laxus squeezed her shoulder, agreeing or warning her, she wasn't sure. She didn't look up at him to check.

"The heart issue isn't one we have to worry about at the moment, at least. Do find out about the paternal mother, if possible. Still, the curse is the greatest issue. The combining of curses especially. My recommendation is to remain at home for much of the pregnancy-"

"But-" Lucy started before being shut down by Porlyusica's hard glare.

"Any other woman I would be comfortable allowing to work, yes. You are not any other woman. Boy."

"Yeah. I'll make sure she keeps off of jobs."

"And you?" the healer turned the glare to her husband.

"We've got savings. I'll stay with her."

"Good. She'll need watching. One part of the Drayar curse was _leaving_ not _dying_. There's no saying that the combination of curses won't warp this into a _wife leaving_ instead of a _wife dying_ from the Dreyar side of the curse. You two idiot children know how I feel about this nonsense already, but now that we are in it, you will behave how I tell you to behave."

"Yes, Porlyusica." Both she and Laxus answered in tandem.

"Okay, okay," she turned the page of her notebook. "I will give you a list of safe foods and drinks. I know you're fond of strawberries. Strawberries and water are a good mixture for nausea and dehydration, for example. If you like it, get used to it. If you're tired this early on, it'll probably get worse for the next handful of weeks, though if you're lucky better after that. Morning sickness isn't a given, but if it happens, keep track of what you eat so we can know if there is anything helping. Eat small meals. Eat meat."

Lucy nodded.

"Magic is an issue. It's not usually genetic, or at least the _specific style_ of magic isn't genetic. However there are a few exceptions. The dragon slayers are trained; I'm not sure if it is something that will penetrate genetically. However, it obviously has altered all of the users on a biological level, so it is certainly possible that your child will develop with an inborn potential for such a thing that none of the current generation has. I am unsure what _that_ will do to the pregnancy, either."

Lucy dropped her head into her hands, she hadn't even considered that. "Okay," she mumbled, "I'll keep track. I keep a daily diary anyway. I'll just keep a better record. That is something that is not difficult for me, keeping a record, I promise." She looked back up. "Diet can be managed. What else?"

"I'll give you powders to take that can regulate your body's internal balance. Keeping you balanced, healthy, calm, and safe will be the way to keep you alive," the old woman told her bluntly.

She swallowed, "Thank you, Porlyusica."

Lucy ignored the sharp pain in her shoulder caused by Laxus' silent spasm, he squeezed her shoulder almost to breaking it. But she bore with it. She understood.

"Now, I need to do a pelvic exam, then you need to give me a urine sample, then we can be done." The healer stood up and moved her chair to the end of the bed, flipping out small bars at the end of it. "Boy, you can go or stay. Whatever the girl wants."

Lucy shrugged, "You can stay, if you want. But you certainly don't have to. A pelvic exam isn't exactly exciting." She bounced off of the bed and jumped behind the curtain to change into the small gown there and use one of the wipes the old woman had available for cleaning.

When she came back out, Laxus was still standing by the bed. He held out a hand to help her back onto it, and kept a hold on her hand while she situated herself. One foot on each bar, knees bent, body bare under the gown.

A year ago, girly-exams (which she had called them) were kind of scary to her. But after months of being examined by Porlyusica in this very bed, Lucy felt rather comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one can feel with an old pink-haired lady snapping on a glove and sticking her hand up inside of you...

"When," Lucy winced, "will we be able to, um, like hear heartbeats or whatever?"

The old woman grunted and shifted her hand. Lucy noticed a metal instrument and frowned, too. "Depends on how long you have been pregnant, girl. And we won't know that 'till my tests are done. But still a few weeks, yet."

Lucy turned her eyes away from her knees. "If my blood test's clean, I take the powders, and I eat healthy... That's good, right? Then what other recommendations?"

Porlyusica set aside the metal tool, a swab, took off her gloves, and readjusted Lucy's gown, indicating she could put her legs down. "Exercise, but carefully. The boy probably _shouldn't_ help with that. I imagine he doesn't know his own strength."

Laxus snorted.

"You can still have sex, if you feel like doing such a thing," Lucy was glad the old woman was turned back to the wall again, putting the swab in a tube, and checking on the blood samples because she was blushing furiously. "However, if you do have sex, keep the magic to a minimum. Wouldn't matter with some magics, maybe, but lightning causes muscle contractions that I'd consider risky."

"Already decided not to use magic around her," Laxus threw in. Lucy kept her eyes down and away. Still embarrassed, though Laxus didn't sound it. "And I'll make sure everyone else keeps their shit to themselves. If they can't, I can at least get between her and them."

"See that you do." The healer turned back around, holding a glass with a curiously shaped rim. Lucy shuddered. She hated giving urine samples.

Once again, Lucy jumped off of the bed and went behind the curtain, where a small bathroom was hidden. It took her a minute to do her business. She was trembling, which wasn't uncommon after a pelvic exam. They tended to make her nervous, and the addition of getting her blood taken, and the general stress of all the rest... well, it was hardly helping matters.

She almost swooned against the wall, leaning there and waiting until she could get up the strength to go back outside. She washed her hands. Took a deep breath. And then took the glass to Porlyusica, holding it on the opposite side of her body from Laxus.

That was a little uncomfortable of a thing.

And something she would have to get used to, if her understanding of the uncomfortable and disgusting parts of pregnancy were at all accurate.

The woman accepted the glass, and glared at the two of them. "Well, without a doubt you are pregnant. Currently, you are healthy. Clean of viruses, or _dangerous_ viruses. Do your best to stay that way. I want you to come to me once a week." She held out a package, which Lucy assumed had the powder in it. "The instructions for taking it are inside, as well as what food is best. If you have any questions don't..." She cleared her throat, "If you have any questions, come back. If you have pain greater than that of a menstrual cramp, come back. If you begin bleeding, come back. If you," she looked up at Laxus, "notice _anything_ unusual, come back. Otherwise, I only want to see you once week. One week from today. Your appointment. No other day. Got it?!"

"Yes, Porlyusica."

"Now, go tell your grandfather the news."

Laxus grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door before the old woman could smack either of them with her broom. Though, it was unlikely to happen, since the thing was still sitting propped against the wall. Where she had set it down in near shock when Lucy had given her the news.

Lucy thought she might have almost cried, just then. Maybe there was a bit of almost a tear. Maybe she had been moved.

She smiled.

"Let's go tell Master," she told her husband, skipping slightly to catch up with his much longer stride.

She was surprised when he stopped and took a deep, a _huge_ breath. He bent almost in half and put his forehead against hers.

"Laxus?"

He didn't answer.

"...Laxus?"

"You have to be careful."

"I..."

"Lucy, you _have to be careful_."

A heavy feeling, solid and cold, formed inside of her, weighing her down. Reminding her so much of that conversation they had right after they eloped. Back when he told her how she could be something that would stay beside him when everything else went away. She'd worried then that she'd made the wrong choice.

That worry came back.

"Laxus," she tried to straighten her spine under him. "I will take care of myself. I will follow Porlyusica's rules. I won't go out on jobs. I'll eat properly. I'll keep track of how I feel. I'll be aware of my surroundings. We'll be careful of your lightning." His hands spasmed around hers. "That is what I will be, Laxus."

She reached up; one hand to one cheek, one hand to his hair. She leaned forward, slightly, so that her lips might touch his. Barely. Barely. And then rocked back on her heels and opened her eyes.

"Nothing's changed, Laxus. What I want hasn't changed, but why we're here hasn't changed, either." She closed her eyes and took her own big, big breath. "Both our mothers died, Laxus." Again, his hands spasmed. "I've not forgotten that. I won't forget that. I'll be careful. You don't have to keep saying it, over and over, like I don't know the stakes."

They stayed that way, together and quiet, for some period of time. Lucy wasn't keeping track. The sun traveled in the sky, but she didn't bother to measure how far. She simply stood with Laxus, comforting him. Being comforted by him. Before making their way back into town. Unhurried. And calm.

0000

They entered the guild to much fanfare and happiness. It had taken months and a bit of force – and some playing hard to get, AKA Lucy straight-up ignoring her team for awhile – but by the fourth month of their marriage, everyone had adjusted. Everything was back to normal.

Well, as normal as Fairy Tail could get. Master complained sometimes because her team was apparently a little more reckless without her around, and there had been a tiny uptick in complaints. And she and Laxus wouldn't allow them to crash their house the way they had crashed her apartment, so Natsu and Gray were spending more time at the guild... more time _fighting_ at the guild. Thus the damage that had once been done to her apartment was being done where Makarov had to deal with it.

Which suited Lucy just fine, honestly. She had other things to worry about. It was good to see them, when she saw them, but she was happy that she could be relieved of at least a few of the every-day stresses she'd had before marrying Laxus. Like constantly remodeling her apartment. And spending hours apologizing to clients for buildings (sometimes entire towns) she hadn't actually broken.

If the story they told the guild was the real story, the whole story, Lucy's life would be a blissful one. But, unfortunately she had just replaced one stress with another. And pulled Laxus into it. Poor man.

Yet, the faces they presented to the guild were always happy, and anytime Laxus smelled tears or fear on her, which Gajeel and Natsu would also sense, they stayed in. And he comforted her as well as he could.

Which was better than anyone might have guessed.

The last … two months had gotten hard. Each day seeming less and less possible. Each hour moving them closer and closer … _her_ closer and closer...

Laxus, at least, would live. She had comfort in that. Her failure, as she had begun to consider it, had not hurt him. She'd checked the curses. They were unchanged. She had not poisoned him. He was safe, and that meant so much to her.

But every day was a day closer to her death, and that was killing him, emotionally. She could see it, when the mask dropped. At night, when he touched her, she could feel his pain and desperation leech into her, skin to skin.

The last month he had held her so tightly when he slept that the slightest tremor in him would wake her. And he shook. Nightmares.

She'd wondered how long it had been since anyone had seen the Thunder God afraid.

But his mask was a good one. No one knew but her. Not even his grandfather; though, he surely suspected.

As they waved in greeting to all their friends, explaining that they'd be down as soon as they saw Makarov, they climbed the stairs. She didn't think he realized just how tightly he clung to her hand. How much it hurt.

She didn't enlighten him. He'd be so afraid for so long. She could bear this.

"Ah! Lucy, my dear!" Makarov said as they entered. "Laxus! How are you both?"

She wasted no time. As soon as the door sealed, ensuring sound proofing, she spoke. "It happened. I'm pregnant. We've just returned from Porlyusica's confirming it."

Though Lucy knew the Master also worried, she was shocked how quickly his affable, every-day expression melted into tearful relief. He slumped over his arms on his desk, crying. "Oh, oh, child. Thank goodness. Thank goodness."

Lucy was dumbfounded. She swallowed. "Um... I'm about … ah, a month along. Traditionally people wait three months to announce, you know." She chuckled weakly. "I mean, of course you know; you've done this whole thing before. But I just mean... We keep it between us three and Porlyusica for another two. Make sure everything is okay."

The old man sat up abruptly. " _Is_ everything okay? The point of this marriage was to cancel out the curses. We need to test you both."

Lucy nodded, "I planned on having Crux do it when we got home. I, um, wanted to be … comfortable."

She _wanted_ to be in a place she could break down if nothing had changed.

Probably sensing the true reason, Makarov nodded. "Did Porlyusica test you, too?" he asked his grandson.

Laxus blinked. "...For what? Pregnancy?" He smirked. Then, oddly enough, laughed. "She's taken blood from me plenty of times before. Old hag's has done more work ups on me than I can count. Knows my medical history. Knows your side of it at least. But I couldn't tell her anything to look for about my mom's side of the family."

"No. And I wouldn't suggest asking my idiot son. Even from jail he might attempt... You were born in Magnolia Hospital. I'm sure they still have your records, which would include that information. I'd try there. I can only tell you what I remember. She appeared healthy enough, and the delivery was easy enough. But after? It was like every sickness that passed through this corner of Fiore came to torture her."

Lucy looked at her husband's face, at the brief moment of horror instantly covered by his easy, neutral, entirely false expression. God, he might shatter the bones in her hand.

"But that was the curse, not genetics," Makarov said, his own mask now firmly in place.

Lucy had to ask. "How... How was it with your wife? Genetics, and the curse."

The little old man's eyes were distant, thoughtful. "I think her brother suffered from diabetes. And her father had a heart attack several years after she died... Bad hearts all around," the old man chuckled.

Lucy waited. Laxus waited. Finally, Makarov continued.

"Your grandmother, Ivan's mother, died when Ivan was five years old." Makarov turned his face away from them briefly before looking up, up, up at his grandson. "She and Ivan were picnicking."

"Gramps..."

Makarov looked away again, and the lines on his face, which Lucy was so used to seeing deepened into the shape of joy, were lax. So dim and hollow. Like his eyes. Like his voice.

The room was so tense, Lucy could hardly breathe. They needed to know, but she so regretted asking.

"It happens sometimes. Even on sunny days... Lightning. She was struck by lightning. Ivan stayed with her. Almost a full day. I had been away, and the others weren't sure where they'd gone."

Her hand no longer hurt. Laxus had let go. He'd gone still. So still. She'd never seen him like that before. Almost, almost empty. And the Master covered, dripping with guilt and sorrow. A grief that had never truly healed.

What had she brought to this family? If she failed... They'd suffered so much... What had she brought to this family? These men who'd done nothing but help her.

For a minute or two or three or five, she watched her Master weep and her husband break. It was heart-wrenching, and of course there was no way in the world to make such a tragic thing better. But she could ease the sharp barbs that had grown from the telling.

With Laxus near catatonic, he didn't react to her reaching into his jacket for the tissues he kept there – for wood stain and glasses lenses, just in case – and she walked around the large desk. Carefully, she wiped her grandfather-in-law's tears, and then kissed his temple.

"Wait for a moment. I'll bring you an ale, alright?"

She didn't stay for his response before returning to Laxus. Cautiously, as if approaching a stray dog, she reached up with her left hand to touch his cheek and over with her right to brush the tips of her fingers over his gold wedding band.

"Laxus," she whispered, pouring support into her connection with him, instead of their more usual passion. "Laxus. Please. I'm going to step down to the bar for a moment and get us all something to drink. I'll be right back up. But I'm here, okay?" She ran her fingers over the gold a second and third time. "I'm right here."

She felt … self-hatred. And her heart, already cracking from the damage the story had done to the two men now closest to her in her life, shattered completely. Laxus' father had pushed on him the power that had killed his grandmother. His grandfather – a man he'd had such a rocky relationship with for years – had raised him despite the fact that he had stomped and strutted around taking so much pleasure in the destroying by using that same power.

Lucy pulled and pushed, and he gave enough to sit in the chair behind him. She leaned forward and pressed a firm kiss to his lips, and then donned her own mask to meet with Mira.

She bounced downstairs waving again to Levy and Laki and Asuka, laughingly telling them that she wasn't quite done with their meeting. She came to a halt in front of the bar, where Mira met her smile for smile.

"How's it going up there?"

"Oh, you know," Lucy waved a hand.

Mira chuckled. "They've gotten along so much better since you two got married. I mean, they'd been doing better already, but you can tell that they're trusting each other more. Talking more. That's because of you."

Lucy bit her lip, struggling to keep her mask from falling. "I know. I do know. Though he wasn't any happier than the rest of you, at first."

"Yes, well," the barmaid laughed and put two ales and one shake on a tray, "we were just a little surprised. You know how we are."

"Nothing quiet about Fairy Tail, especially not surprise." Lucy hesitated. "Can you keep a secret?"

Mira's eyes sparkled. Lucy knew she couldn't, and anyway Wendy and Gajeel were both in the building. But it might distract them a bit. Give the three of them upstairs some breathing room.

"Of course!"

"We – Laxus and I – had a bit of a bet. We didn't know _Jellal_ of all people would see us, but we knew _someone_ would. So Laxus bet it would be in the papers by the next morning, and I bet Jason would get an evening sheet out that night. Well, as you know Bobbi Bobbi got an evening sheet. So neither of us _perfectly_ won," she laughed. "I won a little more, though."

Mira waited. When Lucy didn't say anything more, she asked, "What were the winnings? Did you split something?"

"That," Lucy winked, "is a secret I'm not telling."

_Dinner_ , after all, wasn't exactly exciting. Mira wouldn't be distracted by that in the least. But as Lucy walked up the stairs, she did so to the soundtrack of Mira's giddy clapping.

She also heard Levy frantically saying, "Wendy? Wendy? Are you okay?!"

And Gajeel's low chuckle, "Leave the kid alone, Levy. She'll be fine." Followed by more chuckling.

It helped her to keep the smile on until she was in the office with the door closed once more behind her.

Makarov's tears had stopped; though, he still appeared worn down. And _older_ than she'd ever seen him. Laxus had returned to himself, but his eyes were drowning in so much negative emotion that it was if he had gone through a great trauma.

And perhaps he had.

She set mugs before the two of them and put her own before the empty third chair. For a short time, she sat and drank, but only a short time.

"I'm not always great with silence," she told them both, causing Makarov, at least, to jerk in surprise. "And, if you'll forgive my rudeness. – and a bit of hypocritical behavior – silence hasn't done much to help either of you in this so far. Maybe Laxus would have never discovered this sad truth, Master, but you have suffered with it."

"When would I have told him?" The old man sounded lost, "As a … a child?"

"Yes." Lucy said. "At least some of it. Bit by bit. Teach him the dangers of the power through the consequences. It would be awhile before he realized what it meant that Ivan was the one who gave it to him, and then maybe he would have been young enough, and still love his father enough, to realize the man probably was too connected and traumatized by the event to go to any other element."

Lucy lowered her voice. "I understand transferring blame, you know. Father blamed me for Mama's death for years. Ivan was a child and alone and scared. Of course it wasn't your fault, Master; it was an accident, but you can't give your anger to an accident. You can't rage against _nature_ ; nature doesn't care. So he transferred that blame to you. But family..." She choked, "Family is always the easiest target. For love or comfort or blame, abuse. There, available, unavoidable, connected. It was the lightning, and it was you. Then he lost his wife, and Laxus..." she turned to her husband. "We are made in our childhoods. Defined. We can change some, but the experience lingers. I don't necessarily think it is because it killed her, or not only that … I think it's because it's the only thing else that was there. The only other connection he has." She bit the inside of her cheek, "He's not a good man, your father. He's jealous. Selfish. Narcissistic. But … he doesn't hate you."

"That bastard," Laxus' voice was like gravel under scored steel wagon wheels, "has no love for me."

"Maybe no love," she allowed, "but also no hate." She twisted her ring. She needed him to understand. "My father, too, wanted me for money and power. Not for the lacrima inside me, maybe, but for the wealth and connections he could get by selling me in marriage." She tried to force her truth into him. "It took _years_. Long, hard years for him to come back to me … and he did so and died while we were under Mavis' spell. I don't remember a time when my father loved me, either. But I have letters that tell a different story. Your father … he could still learn. Nothing in the world is impossible, Laxus. Not even forgiveness. Not even love."

She focused hard, whispering along the line of her magic the vow they made; she wanted him to remember that day, to remember her. They'd spent so long afraid that he was probably deeper in his despair than he would have been a month before they were married or on the day after. But it was too easy to spiral the way he was now.

Laxus, she could feel him falter, shifted in his chair. "Life after death is impossible," he said.

The intellectual magic nerd in her wanted to mention the black magic spells that could manage such things... she wanted to mention their first guild master, but instead she nodded. "Yes. Yes, you're right. That is an exception." She looked from Laxus to Master and back. She hated to leave Makarov alone, but Laxus needed more attention. "Let's go home, Laxus."

"Lucy..."

She smiled, "Come on. I need rest. Let's go home."

0000

He left as soon as they got home. Didn't even go in the house, which was problematic because she wanted to test the curse... But she understood that he was upset. So as he veered left for the forest and his personal training area, she opened the door.

Putting the bag down on the counter, Lucy pulled out each container of medicinal powder and the long list of instructions, trying to log each bit of information to memory before placing the meds in the fridge and hanging the notes on the door. Hungry, she decided getting a head-start on dinner – and snacking on ingredients as she cooked – wasn't a terrible idea.

With meat and root veggies slow roasting in the oven, she washed her hands and looked outside through the window over the sink. Though it was on the correct side of the house to see Laxus' regular training spot, she couldn't catch sight of him. Either the trees and shadows were hiding him from her, or he'd gone deeper into the woods.

She could follow him through their rings if she wanted, but she knew he wanted privacy. And he deserved privacy. So she'd let him go.

She let him go and let him go.

And let him go.

For hours. Dinner came. And went. And she didn't eat it. Didn't eat what she made. Why eat such a large meal, alone? She made herself a sandwich, and she sat in her chair with a book. It was a good enough book. It was usually a good enough book. It was actually one of her favorite books.

She hated it. She could barely keep her eyes on the page.

She almost threw it at the wall.

Stars above, she was tired.

She stared at the door, wanting him to open the door, knowing she'd yell at him if he did. She was angry, now. Angry at him. For missing dinner, that's why she'd yell. But it wasn't the whole of the truth. For hurting himself, that was the reason. He was making it worse.

But Laxus was a private man. He wasn't like her. He liked to be alone, sometimes. She knew that. Laxus wasn't Lucy.

So Lucy allowed him his time.

She stayed in her chair. Holding her book, her beloved book. And read (watched the door).

Eventually, he came home, but it wasn't until after she'd fallen asleep in the chair with a book on her lap. It was late when he woke her. Extremely late, she thought, by the exhaustion in his face. Simple exercise would never tire him out.

"Laxus?" she whispered, unsure of what to say. Unsure of what he needed. But she didn't yell. She forgot to.

He shook his head. Set her book aside. Lifted her from the chair. Carefully, with measured steps, he carried her to their room and laid her in bed. Then he started to leave.

"Laxus?" she sat up. "Where..."

"I'll sleep downstairs," he told her.

"What? Why?!" Her heartbeat stuttered. Her breathing faltered.

"Porlyusica said to be careful," he said. "This is me being careful."

And he was gone.

0000

He avoided her for days. It hurt. It was almost like once he'd … once she was … like he was done. Like it didn't matter anymore. Like she didn't matter anymore.

Without the contract and the ring, she would believe that, and it would hurt even more. But he was hers, bound by vow, and she had managed to learn him, piece by piece, over their months of marriage. She could reach for him and understand.

His avoidance and her own pain frustrated her to the point where she stopped caring about his privacy. Screw his stupid privacy.

Laxus was a very self-assured man whose self assurance rested on a foundation of un-addressed depression. The fact that he was made to be a reflection of his grandmother's death had seriously shaken him. It made him question even more whether he was safe to be around her. And reenforced his almost lifelong belief in his primary use being offensive. A living weapon. A fleshy container for his father's militant magical wishes.

She sat in their bed, eyes closed, twisting her ring. Following him as he walked through the forest around their home. Lucy didn't know what to do, wasn't sure what to do. She was, however, fairly certain she shouldn't leave him as he was. If he wasn't working through it on his own – which was what she had been giving him time to do – it was her turn to step in.

Lucy opened her eyes and closed her right hand over her left.

"Laxus."

She rarely used their connection like this. To call him to her. He wasn't a spirit, and even with her spirits, she didn't like to command. But it was a very firm request. A sharp need. A longing, which slipped through, unexpectedly. Unintentionally. Their contract was an honest thing, and the longing was there. Impossible to hide.

She missed him. She missed him in their house, which was too empty. She missed him in their bed, which was too large. She missed him. And that feeling filled her as she spoke his name again, reaching for him.

"Laxus."

She held the ring to rest over her heart, and wondered if she were above begging. The longing, the need, insisted that she try anything that might work. So she begged.

"Please. Please. Please, come home."

He had stopped moving. Just stopped, as she continued to whisper his name. To call. To plea. To cry, because she had begun crying, at some point.

"Come back," she told him. "Come back. But because you want to. Because you actually want to, not that I'm forcing you. Let this be your excuse, if you need one..."

He was moving. She closed her eyes again, following his path. Her heart lifted the moment she realized he was moving her direction. Coming to her. And not slowly.

He entered the house. She heard the door slam. She wanted to cheer. He had finally come home. This time she didn't even say his name out loud, but she thought of him so strongly that his steps sped up on the stairs.

Then he was there. Here. Across from her. In the doorway.

His face was devoid of emotion, but Lucy knew him better than that. Too much emotion. Fear. Doubt. He'd shut himself down. For protection. His. Hers.

Poor man. Poor boy. Poor child. Her heart ached for him.

"We need each other," she told him. A simple fact. "That hasn't changed. Don't runaway from me."

He was silent. Immobile. He wouldn't step further into the room. But he didn't leave, either.

Slowly she shifted, so that she wasn't resting against the abundance of pillows but instead worked to stand on the mattress. A wobbly soap box, but it gave her a slight height advantage.

It was a difficult thing, dealing with a man who was so cautious of his emotions. Times like this, she was reminded of the old him. He _went bad_ because he couldn't understand how exactly to handle his pain. He also reminded her of her father, who locked himself away from her. From his own heart.

"You're a better man," she told her husband, "than your father is. Or ever was, given his reputation. What he suffered … I remember what it was like losing Mama … for _his_ loss … I can't imagine, but it doesn't justify what he did to you. I wasn't saying that, Laxus."

"I know you weren't." He finally spoke. After days of silence, his voice caused her to tremble.

"No matter the hardship, Laxus … I can't see you doing anything close to what he did. You're your own man, forged by your own experiences, who made his own path. And it's a good, solid path."

She shifted her weight and swayed slightly as the soft mattress gave under her weight. She noticed how Laxus' muscles tensed, as if preparing to move forward. To catch her if she were to fall. But she didn't. He stayed in the doorway.

"And you're not alone on it anymore. I'm _here_ , Laxus. You're here. Being alone right now when … when I don't want to be. And I _know_ you don't want to be, either. It's just dumb. Stupid. You married me, you dope. Don't just run off like a jackass. You want to pretend this is about your lightning when we both know it's not: You are one of the best wizards in Fiore. Not just most powerful, but _best_. Meaning controlled. You're only going to zap me if you want to zap me. And you obviously don't want to zap me."

"Lucy-"

She blew him off, his voice was hesitant, unsure. Hers wasn't. "If it's about your father... that is a harder problem, but I know from experience that brooding doesn't fix things, there. Friends do. In this case, maybe your wife can. That's me, in case you forgot."

"Lucy-"

"And if it's the pregnancy, well. People get pregnant and give birth every day. Sure, our situation is a little more risky than most, but in the end, it's a pregnancy. Nothing outlandish about that."

They stared at each other. He was probably waiting to see if she was actually done this time. If she would actually let him speak. She shrugged.

"I'm not a good person." He told her, and she snorted. "I'm not. I'm better than I was, but I'm not a _good_ person. Not like you or Gramps. I don't … react to shit right. Lost my mom. If I lose you, too, what's to stop me from hurting our kid the same way my shitty old man did me? I could keep this goddamn curse going..."

"No," she answered firmly and without hesitation. "Don't even think that. You had your time in the dark, Laxus, but you came out. You don't react to things the way I do, no, but that doesn't make you a bad person, it just makes you not me. And your reactions are protective, Laxus. Do you not realize that? Caring. I don't give a crap what they're based on, that's what you're doing with your actions: Helping. If I die, you will protect our child in my memory."

"What if-" he faltered and took a step in her direction.

She couldn't help but smile. "It is a tragedy you didn't have more people to protect you as a child, but think logically, Laxus. If you _did_ go crazy and attempt to do harm to a kid – any kid, but especially mine – do you think Erza or Mira would let you get away with it? Remember how afraid you were of them before? Or just as bad: With as much as Freed worships you, can you imagine how devoted he might be to a child of your body?" She laughed, picturing it.

"Were I to die and you to go mad, our child would be safe with our friends. Were we both to die, our child would be cared for and loved more than we were when you and I were children without mothers and with negligent, abusive fathers. And if we live? If we live, Laxus, there will be no better home. And I'm honestly starting to believe, no better father."

"Lucy-" This time it was pure disbelief that shook him, and he took a step back.

"You wouldn't worry if you didn't care, Laxus. And you wouldn't worry _this much_ if you didn't care _a lot_. For an arranged marriage, Laxus Dreyar, I think we're doing pretty okay." She grinned. "Now. Go take a shower and come to bed."

"I don't think that's a good idea." He was frowning at her. Thrown, she thought, by her quick change of tone.

"I don't care," she told him, flippantly. "I'm tired of sleeping alone."

"Did..." _Finally_ , he broke the barrier of the doorway and entered the room.

"Mmm?" she narrowed her eyes, studying him in case he got shy again and started to leave. Considering her options. Jumping him, for example, was impossible unless he _wanted_ her to jump him.

"Did you test to see if the curse..."

"Oh! No. You weren't here." She shrugged. "No point if it wasn't both of us, I thought."

"You could do it now."

She sighed. This could possibly be super depressing. She collapsed back onto the bed, and Laxus jumped forward, too late to catch her, but she just chuckled as she rolled onto her side and reached for her keys on the bedside table.

"Open the Gate of the Southern Cross: Crux!"

Laxus nodded politely to this spirit, which Lucy appreciated. They had met many times since the wedding, and as Crux wasn't especially lecherous or disturbing, he seemed calm around the old man.

"Crux, I'm sure you felt it already, but I'm pregnant. Can you see if that changed anything?"

The large, mustachioed cross stared at them for several long moments before yelling out and answering. "From what I can tell, though maturation might change this, both curses have shifted to your womb, Mistress Lucy. Master Laxus has no trace of the Dreyar curse on him, and for the most part, Mistress Lucy, your body is clear. I was not witness to your mother's pregnancy or your birth, but one would expect traces of the curse to linger in order for the 10-year rule to be in effect, yet it does not."

Lucy bit her lip. "But … we're still passing it on? It's still a blood curse?"

"It is hard to say at this point, Mistress Lucy. The pregnancy is only weeks old. I would expect time to make changes."

"Have the curses combined, or are the two curses separated in me?" she asked, looking at her belly.

"They are yet distinct from one another. But as your genes have combined, so too might the curses."

Lucy nodded, "It was a consideration. A possibility." She looked up at Laxus, who was perfectly calm in his most mask-like way. "Thank you, Crux. I'll call for you again, soon."

"With pleasure, Mistress Lucy."

"Laxus?"

He looked down at her, and his expression was almost hopeful. "You're not going to die..."

"Maybe. Like Crux said, things could change. It is still in me, after all." She waved a hand at him. "You, though! Clean! It worked! If something did happen, no more _only-child_ curse. You can have-"

He was so fast, she didn't see him move before his hand was over her mouth.

"No. No. Because nothing is going to happen."

His eyes glowed. An emotion very near to fury, but not directed wholly at her. At the world. The situation. Her words.

She pulled his hand down. "Laxus," she whispered. "You can't be like this. I'm not giving up, but we can't ignore possibilities. I want to be prepared."

He sank to his knees beside the bed; she slid to sit on the edge. "Why couldn't you have picked someone more fucking optimistic?" He grumbled. " _All_ I see are _possibilities_ , Lucy. Goddamn it, let me at least lie to myself while you're right here. And don't _ever_ say shit like that to me again. Like you said, _I_ married _you_ , and the Dreyar curse is still a thing, it just happens to be in _you_ , so _that_ ," he pointed at her stomach, "is what the curse allows. My only child."

She sucked in a breath. Unable to come up with an appropriate response.

He grabbed her left hand and pulled at her rings.

"Laxus!" she yelled. Trying to stop him. Unsure of his intentions, but sure she wanted to keep her wedding rings _on_.

He stopped and frowned at her, "The old hag said not to use magic. You were using it a lot."

"She said not to use magic during _sex_ ," Lucy corrected, blushing slightly.

"Right," he answered. Successfully removing the jewelry and reaching to put her rings and his on the bedside table. She detected a hint of a smirk. And possibly a bit of a blush.

Surely not.

"Laxus..." she said as he leaned forward to kiss her.

"Mmm?"

"You smell. Go take a shower."

He laughed. And they were okay.

0000X0000

**Author's Note**

And there's six. I have an outline for 7 and 8. But absolutely no text work done. Don't expect anything fast.

I don't know where any of this stuff about Ivan and his mom came from, except I was trying to think of reasons why exactly he did what he did to Laxus, which are quite easy. Power, control, giant asshat, etc. I wanted to make the lightning important. And Ivan is so obviously a damaged man. Childhood trauma just sort of worked. By the curse I had already set up, naturally his mom had to die _somehow_ , so I didn't have to get too inventive. Just make his mom's death something that really affected him.

And then he passes it on to Laxus, and Laxus, who hasn't had the best past and might not be too confident about being a parent... is now wondering if he'll turn into his own dad. And he's learned the only thing he's ever had pride in – through the good and the bad – his magic, is tainted through his grandmother's death.

But, perhaps he'll find a new-found appreciation of his grandfather because of it. Who knows. Probably no one. I mean, I guess I could probably know. But maybe I won't know. Whatever!


	7. Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lucy's pregnancy progresses, and the big day arrives.

Family

Chapter Seven

Bridge

She hated everything and everyone.

But no, seriously. She was really tired. Really nauseated. And really, really bored. At this specific moment, there wasn't much in the way of "things" or "ones". She was stuck in the house with naught but books she'd already read, movies she had already seen, and a husband who wasn't especially entertaining on his best days.

And since she'd just spent a good ten to twenty minutes yelling at him about how the only reason she was stuck in the house was that he was too pansyassed to take her out, he'd be with her after all, he could do that whole "protection" bullshit, like she needed it. Which she didn't. She just wanted to go to the goddamn _any-freaking-where_.

Yeah... this wasn't one of his best days. Turns out, Laxus didn't like being called pansyassed. Who knew?

Now, Lucy knew she was being unreasonable, but holy starlight, she was not made for house arrest. She'd broken out of her childhood home when she was barely 17 and set out alone into the world, wide-eyed and naive. Since then, she'd been able to grab a bag and go wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted.

Heck, if she'd wanted to leave the country for a weekend, she could have done it! Anytime she wanted! A month ago, Lucy had been a free woman! Well, maybe not a month. But a year. A year ago!

Of course, she'd have been hard-pressed to afford such a trip, considering her finances at the time, but _whatever_. Not at all the point. The point was...

The point was she was _bored out of her mind_.

How in the world was she supposed to handle seven-and-a-half more months of this?

She wondered what it was like to be pregnant and be anyone else. To be pregnant and not cursed. To be pregnant and not Laxus' wife, because knowing him as she now did, she had a fairly good feeling that he'd be stupidly overprotective, curse or no curse.

It didn't help that her spirits were fully in her _husband's_ corner. So much for that "master", "mistress", "princess" crap. She couldn't get a single one of them to sneak her out for _anything_. Stargazing? Nope. Just walking to the place she normally stretched out to study the night sky and all its wonder was apparently a risk of monumental proportions.

It was, in fact, a miracle she was allowed to leave the bed at all. Or to feed herself.

"Ugh," her husband groaned, looking – she supposed – at the undoubtedly _unfriendly_ expression on her face. "Okay. Within _reason_ , let's figure out something you can do that doesn't pose too much risk or strain, but will give you some intellectual and physical stimulation before you start murdering people. Namely me."

She grinned and tapped her chin in thought. Very satisfied thought. "Is there a combination spa/library anywhere in this country," she laughed. "That sounds pleasing."

"You know that hot sprin-"

"I didn't say hot springs, Laxus," she cut him off with a snort. "I said spa. Warm herb presses, massages, and so on. I've got quite a bit of joint pain starting. Would be pleasant to have a little bit of TLC without the oppression."

"And you can't get a masseuse to come visit you here?" he asked.

She smirked, "Without mentioning the baby? No. So. Where are we going, sweetie?"

She froze.

He froze.

She'd never … they'd never … terms of endearment weren't a thing they did. She considered having a mild panic attack, but instead she just swallowed and sort of ran right over it, babbling, as if she'd never said it. It was too awkward a thing.

"Obviously, Crocus is the easiest choice, but it's also the most busy. A resort town would be quieter, but more expensive and we need to not waste funds. Guild towns are risky, for the same reasons they were when we eloped."

Laxus nodded, also electing to overlook her slip. "I'm not sure if you've ever stopped there, but there's a town midway between the Capital and Magnolia, it's probably a little close to the Council Seat for Team Natsu's liking," he grinned, "called Pearl. As it services much of the Council's needs, when they're not hoofin' it to Crocus. It's gotta have some comforts and shit to do."

"Mm? Gem Town? I went there during our gap year, writing an article on the new Council. They've got a whole bath district. It's a pleasure town. Have you ever been there?"

He looked at her oddly, "I've never stayed over, but I've walked through. Are you trying to tell me it's a..."

"About nine years ago, yeah, it was a bit of a brothel town," she laughed. "I think Hades? Who was controlling Ultear who was controlling Jellal? That's how that was working, wasn't it? Anyway, I think whoever was subverting the Council at the time was encouraging debauchery, and it fed that behavior into the town. Gem Town, or Pearl is very tied to the Council Seat. When I visited for the article, you could still catch hints of the old guard, you know. It still has what is probably the most affluent pleasure district in the country, but it also has a few really solid hotels and great restaurants."

"You know a lot of things."

She shrugged, "I read; I worked at the magazine; I talk to people, ask them questions; I travel. You pick stuff up. Anyway, Pearl is pretty expensive, normally, but I've got a few friends there. Levy does, too." Lucy thought back to one of the few very pleasant memories of their gap year, when the two of them managed to meet up for a girls' week, just her and Levy, and spend basically a month's pay in the bath district. Luckily, Lucy managed to have _savings_ while she lived in Crocus. They'd made so _many_ friends in Pearl while they were there.

"I could probably get us a nice room without much of a price tag, and I know of a really good local massage parlor that actually caters more to the working population than to the Council members or their employees, or tourists. It would work out pretty well, if you're up for it."

Lucy found she was being extra careful of her words. Guarding against another slip of the tongue.

Laxus studied her. "Yeah. I'm up for it. Let me tell Gramps, then I'll go hire a carriage."

"Thanks..." she twitched and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

She'd almost done it again.

0000

Pearl was beautiful. Maybe even more beautiful than it had been the last time she visited. It might have been the accommodations, though. Laxus insisted on spending a little more money than she had when she was with Levy.

He'd spent their first night there sleeping off motion sickness, and she'd spent it in the sitting area of their suite, having a private in-room herb-press massage. Lucy didn't know the masseuse personally, but a few names dropped here and there meant she was given good treatment, and not cheated on her two hours.

The next day were warm baths, long lunches, walks through the so-called breeze-blossom gardens, which was an arboretum filled with all-year blooming floral trees set up with a permanent light breeze that set loose petals floating around the space lightly. Making it a cool and relaxing place during warm months.

It was the best vacation she'd ever taken.

"I don't really want to tell anyone," she whispered to Laxus one night. She wasn't even 100% sure he was awake, it was so late, but this was a dark sort of secret. She felt like she needed to get it out of her. It was burning her up inside.

"Why?" he asked. Instantly. He didn't even sound tired. He hadn't been sleeping.

"It feels selfish. You know how happy they'll be." Lucy could picture the crazy reaction to the general announcement. "It feels even more like a lie than eloping did. They'll be so happy, and most days, Laxus, I'm just so scared."

"I think everyone's scared, ya' know, first kid. Don't think it's ever easy. We've just … got a bit extra..."

" _A bit_."

"You know what I mean."

"I do."

They were quiet for a long time. "You said you would've become a fuckin' walking plague if you didn't do this, which would have killed other people, then die. It's not selfish."

"Yes, it is." Blunt was their watchword. Since the beginning.

"Not totally selfish."

She sighed, "Yes, it is. I tell myself I don't want to harm others, but really, I just don't want to die. Pretty selfish."

"Most people just have kids cuz they want kids." He shrugged his massive shoulders, and he almost squished her in his armpit. She giggled. "Ya know, if it was on purpose, at all. That's pretty selfish, too. Like it or not. Maybe it's supposed to be..."

She stopped giggling. "Huh?"

"Well, it's the selfish desires that people give most of a shit about, right?"

She tried to meet his eyes in the dark, but it was difficult. "That is … alarmingly profound."

He snorted, "Between years of Freed and almost a year of you … couldn't completely stop being contaminated by you nerds."

She hit him, and he laughed.

And they slept.

0000

"Happy 20th birthday, Lucy!" the guild nearly knocked her off her feet with the collective cheer as Laxus held open the door for her.

He was grinning, and she gave the gathered mass a sweet smile in thanks.

She was about to blow hearts and minds.

The door sealed closed. Laxus' warm body filled the space behind her, shading her as he put a hand on her _slightly_ -less-defined hip. Support. Support and protection.

In this place, with this news, she might very well need both.

Before any single one of them could leap forward and offer a more direct greeting (or grasp onto her in a way that would cause her husband to break things), Lucy raised a hand.

"Thank you so much, everyone! Despite a few … bumps..." there were some side-eyed glances and some throat clearing, "this last year now holds some of my most treasured memories." A bit of a stretch, but not completely a lie. She discreetly pressed her left hand over the one Laxus still rested on her hip. "I hope this year will be even better. Especially starting out this well." Her smile morphed into a grin. "Graceful speeches aside, guess what? I'm pregnant."

Lucy'd expected a moment of silence, so the quiet shock that rippled through the large room did not bother her. That Wendy was the first to break was a bit of a surprise, however.

"I knew it!" the teen yelled, leaping across the room in three large jumps, and lifting a hand. "May I?"

"Yes," Lucy nodded. Granting the girl the favor. Interested in what she would discover. Maybe a bit afraid, as well.

The healing dragon slayer's touch was warm. It rolled through her like a gentle sigh.

"You saw Porlyusica and not me," the girl pouted.

"It's tradition to not tell people until the 3rd month. I was concerned someone at the guild," she pointedly didn't look at Erza or Mira, "might pressure you..."

Wendy nodded, "And no one pressures Porlyusica."

Both Lucy and Laxus laughed, apparently breaking the spell that held the rest of the guild.

There was happiness that night, and lots of it. Enough for Lucy at least to forget _why_ it was happening, and to just live in that moment where maybe fairy tales were real. Maybe happy endings were a thing.

But then in fairy tales, curses were also a thing. And the princess didn't always come out on top. If she were the princess at all. She put her hand over her stomach, and clenched her jaw. She was the one possibly cursing another. In this story, she was the wicked witch, wasn't she?

She shook her head and let herself get caught back up in the joy of her guild.

Levy, who was the first to reach her after Wendy – Mira was foiled by the bar, Erza was blushing too much, and Natsu was having Gray explain what pregnancy was (probably, Lucy wasn't sure what they were talking about, but she wouldn't be surprised). Levy was also the first to ask the questions Lucy would quickly get tired of answering.

"So...you're due in January?"

Lucy shrugged, "Just about the 1st, we think. Or Porlyusica thinks."

"Boy or girl?" her best friend asked.

"I was actually hoping Wendy could help with that. The little nut keeps curling up and turning around when I do scans," Lucy laughed. "We can't tell."

"Not a huge deal if she can't, though," Laxus put in. Not wanting, Lucy guessed, Wendy to feel bad if she couldn't. "We'll find out soon enough."

"True," Lucy agreed.

"Aside from getting a blood sample or manipulating it to move," Wendy told them, "I can't just tell. Not magically."

Gajeel, who had come to stand between Levy and Wendy, chuckled. "Sure you can, kid." He tapped his nose.

"But, it's in Lucy. All I can smell is Lucy."

"Well, yeah. But if ya got up _reeeallly_ close-"

Laxus zapped him before Lucy understood what Gajeel was insinuating and why he was chuckling so wickedly while saying it. Levy caught on at about the same time. While Lucy blushed furiously, Levy turned around and kicked his boot. Probably, she would have slapped him, but his skin-and-hair bits were still sparking. His boots were safer.

Lucy dared to look up at her husband. He grunted.

"Maybe."

Her face burned.

She was engulfed in a large hug from both sides. Mira and Lisanna. "I'm so happy for you," the older woman said. "Congratulations."

"Yes!" Lisanna agreed. "Congrats! And if you need anything, Mira and me, we'll do what we can. You know that, right?"

"Of course," Lucy told them both. "I never doubted it."

Person by person, the guild came to her. Greeted her. Congratulated her. Joked with Laxus. _Not even a year, eh?_ Some of the men in their guild were pigs, seriously. But, all in all, it was a really joyous night.

And then Natsu came.

Laxus had been very good, their whole marriage, with letting Lucy take the lead in any Natsu-related situation. He was good at respecting their friendship. So when Natsu came up to her with a cloudy expression, Laxus stepped back

"Are you okay?" he asked her. And the concern on his face wasn't confusion. It was concern.

"Um, yes. I am. Well, I get a little sick in the mornings, but it's nowhere near as bad as some morning sicknesses I've heard of, and it's not as bad as your motion sickness, so I can't really complain too much. My joints hurt... but I mean, _okay_? Yeah."

"I just … I just don't understand."

"What don't you understand, Natsu?"

"Why so many things are changing."

_Ah_ , she thought. _So that's the problem_.

"Life changes. I'm not 17 anymore. I grew up a little. We discussed this before, I think. How when people spend time apart, sometimes that changes them. It didn't you; it did me. Or maybe it didn't change me so much as make me more open about who I am and what I want. Right now, who I am is Lucy Dreyar, and what I want is this baby. I'm still Lucy of Fairy Tail, and I still want the guild and all that comes with it, but I've grown into more than what I was at 17. It's fine if you haven't changed so much. You don't have to be who I am. But time does march on, Natsu. Change is what happens."

He looked very unhappy, and Lucy felt a little bad for him. When she first met him, it had been wonderfully refreshing how he saw the world, especially when compared to her father. She thought her father had a very limited and narrow view of life. But the older she got, the more she was beginning to wonder of Natsu's wide-eyed wonder wasn't also narrow and limited, optimistic as it was. Natsu saw only Natsu's world.

It seemed rather tragic, really.

"Think of it like this," she told him. "It took change for you and me to meet. To become friends. To become a team. Change isn't always good, but while it moves us forward, it can bring us to wonderful places, and introduce us to wonderful experiences. Time moves forward, and we're changing, all of us," she reached out to grab his hand, "and that's okay."

"I just don't want us to end," he admitted to her. "We don't see you as much anymore."

She swallowed. "We're not ending," she hoped so much that she wasn't lying to him. "We're not ending. We're just moving a little bit forward in time. And maybe getting a little larger as a family. And that's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah," he said. And she could see the cogs and gears turning in his head. "Yeah. You're right, Lucy. Congratulations, then!" He looked up to his senior guild member, "And you, too, I guess, Laxus."

"You guess?" Laxus muttered.

But Natsu had already bounded off, happy to have come to whatever conclusion he had come to.

"Your partner's a moron," her husband told her.

"He's better than he used to be," she shrugged. "At least he's calmed down a bit. And now, when Happy calls me fat, it'll actually be about more than just my boobs," she laughed.

The expression on Laxus' face was decidedly unamused, and Lucy just shrugged. Being as he'd spent quite a few years as an asshole, too, probably no one was fit to judge anyone. They all existed in glass houses. Lucy was carrying around a baby and a curse, still. She had decided to be as forgiving as possible, for the time being.

_Recklessly abusive teammates, who don't really understand you? They mean well, we'll forgive them for now_. That was the decision she'd made.

She smiled again at her adopted family, and barely felt the passing of time. The beginning of change.

0000

"You need to take your rings off, soon," Laxus told her, following her into the bathroom.

"I what?" She was shocked.

"Your rings. You need to take them off." He took her left hand and lifted it, turning it slightly. "You haven't gained much weight, yet. But you'll probably gain more. And your hands'll swell. You don't take them off, they'll get stuck and maybe we'll have to cut off your finger," he laughed. "Or maybe just the rings. But you never know. You might lose the whole finger. So you should probably take the rings off."

"Where in the world..." She blinked, "You've been reading my books, haven't you? When? While I'm sleeping? My, my, Laxus! I'm impressed!"

"That I can read?" he smirked.

She pulled back her hand and smacked him lightly on the cheek. He snatched her hand again before she could move away. "That you're bothering to read maternity books."

"Hey, I'm going through this shit, too. Just not... as," he looked down at her not-quite-as-narrow waist, "... _actively_."

"Right." She looked at her hand in his hand. At the ring. Rings. Glittering there under the golden bathroom light.

"I'll buy you a chain," he said, "and you can wear them around your neck until the swelling goes down and they fit again." He bent at the waist so he could kiss her, quickly, but firmly. "Freed's supposed to be over in a bit to up the rune protections on the place. I'm going to go downstairs and wait for him. Yell if you need me for something, or send one of your spirits."

She nodded as he turned and exited the room. She almost felt like crying. He'd known. She'd barely looked, barely moved, and he'd known how distressed she was by the idea of taking away her rings. She hadn't given him any hints, either. At least, she was pretty sure she hadn't.

Almost, almost a year together. She hadn't wasted it. Neither had he. When Makarov asked if they could be happy as they were, even if it wasn't done for the _right_ reasons … when she'd told Loke, back in Crocus … maybe she'd been right.

Maybe she was right.

She drew her bath.

She bathed.

She didn't cry.

Maybe she cried a little. But not much. And not because she was sad.

Not at all sad.

0000

"Should we go to Crocus or the mountains?" she asked Laxus, who had already told her twice he didn't want to go anywhere. Had been very serious about not wanting to go anywhere. But it was their first anniversary, and she wasn't going to spend it under house arrest.

He glared at her. She laughed.

"Come on, Laxus. Don't be awful. Please agree that this is a big thing. I know I bullied you into marrying me-"

"You did fucking not."

"But it hasn't been _impossibly_ bad, right? We can celebrate it a little..."

He grumbled.

"Laxus..."

"It hasn't been impossibly bad, no. But it's been _horrifying_ , and _you are pregnant_. Traveling halfway across the country isn't the best idea right now."

She rolled her eyes, "You read the books, too. Third trimester is when you need to be concerned about travel, and I'm not in my third trimester. So travel is still okay!" She flashed him her most winning smile, not that she expected it to work on him. Laxus was pretty much immune to her fluffier charms. It was very annoying.

"That's what the books say, sure, but the books don't take _special cases_ into account, do they?"

"What a hilariously – and by _hilariously_ I mean the opposite of that – pleasant innuendo for our situation," Lucy scoffed.

He shrugged those massive shoulders of his, which she had grown very fond of, and she sighed. "I don't think we should, Lucy."

And she folded. She folded because he said _we_ and not _you_. Because he obviously felt tied to the so-called _special case_ in more than just the creation, but also in the outcome. Because he hadn't just knocked her up and parted ways, like she'd originally intended...

Which was why this anniversary was so important to her.

And he saw that. She knew he saw that, because _she saw_ regret and apology _in him_.

"We should do _something_ ," Lucy had some level of begging in her tone, but there was also some level of begging in her heart. Not-so-deep-down Lucy knew there was a possibility that this might be their only anniversary. That she had nothing more than this one year and the few months that followed it.

And that year had not been _impossibly_ bad, at all. Much of it had been _okay_. Parts she would even classify as _good_. And more than a few moments were, she would admit, _wonderful_.

She needed an acknowledgment of their marriage.

"Any of your spirits not hate me?" Laxus had a somewhat bitter smirk on his face. It was a joke, but it wasn't necessarily an untrue joke. Loke, they both knew, was still not fully on their side. Or, rather, on Laxus' side.

"Yeah. Virgo and Capricorn like you well enough. Plue is fond of you. Aries and Gemini, but Aries is shy, and Gemini needs more direction, if you need help with something. Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Cancer are ambivalent. As are most of my silver keys, except maybe Crux, who is interested and concerned. Taurus is a bit jealous, I think. Not quite the way Loke is, but that's because he doesn't actually know you. It's just a physical thing with Taurus."

"Huh," Laxus cocked his head to the side. "Didn't think they thought of me that much."

"You're taking part in my life. Of course they think of you. What exactly are you wanting?"

"Well... could you lend me... mmm..." he tapped his fingers on the table, "Virgo and Aries? I'll be nice, promise. Your little ram doesn't have to be scared of me."

"Aries isn't scared, she's just shy and modest. So you're not going to be able to keep her from that behavior. They're set in their ways, it's part of their creation. Of their selves. But...I trust you. Will you tell me why?"

He laughed, "No. You trust me. So a surprise is no big deal, right?"

"Right," she drawled.

His attitude had perked up significantly, so she decided to give him what he asked for. Especially since he was asking in such a pleasant way. All smiles and niceties. She pulled out the needed keys and called for her friends.

"Princess," Virgo bowed. Aries muttered something and hid behind the maid.

"Hi, you two," Lucy gave both a gentle smile. "I wanted to ask if you'd to us a favor."

Both nodded.

"Laxus wants to surprise me with something, and he wants to ask you for help with the surprise. Unless he's trying to surprise me with murder or some other type of crime," she tossed a grin at him over her shoulder, "I'm willing to let him."

Virgo turned her eyes to the large dragon slayer. "What is it you wish to do?"

"Well, that would be telling the surprise. But if you think it's something Lucy'd have a problem with, feel free to let me know, stop me, stop period, and/or tell Lucy."

"I...I...Is this because of the anniversary?" Aries mumbled through Virgo's hair. "...I'm sorry..."

"Yeah. She wanted to go on a trip across the damn country, but I don't want her taking that risk," he glared, and Lucy was annoyed that both of her spirits nodded in solidarity with her husband. "So I had an idea to celebrate here, but I'd need some help. Help that understands Lucy and won't fucking overstep and butt in like if I asked the guild for help."

Her spirits, who had been with her for years, understood Laxus' point completely. They agreed to his plan, and allowed Lucy to temporarily hand over her keys to her husband. He couldn't form the contracts, but a small adjustment to Lucy's contract let him power their magic for the two days leading up to their anniversary.

The three of them spent all of their time out-of-doors while Lucy continued to be trapped inside. Secrets sucked when they continued this whole house arrest torment she'd been fighting against for months.

Finally, the two days were up, and Laxus came back into their house and gave her back her keys.

"Are you ready?" he asked her, when she slid them back in the pouch.

"For what? I don't know what we're doing." She pulled at the loose dress she was wearing, which was nice, but not overly nice, and nothing special.

"You're fine. I'm saying: Do you need to piss?"

She scrunched up her nose, but then sighed. It was a valid question. "No. I'm fine."

"Alright, then." He lifted her from her chair and carried her out of the house. Just by walking, she knew he was taking her somewhere close by.

"Eyes closed," he commanded, and she obeyed. She was fairly pleased that she was getting _something_ out of this personal holiday.

The weaving movement of their trip through the trees relaxed her muscles. With her eyes closed and wrapped in the comforting warmth of Laxus' arms, she almost slid into sleep. But before she could, he stopped and shook her gently.

"Here we are," he said. "You can open your eyes."

She, again, did as ordered. And smiled. Grinned. Reached up, happy she was already in Laxus' grip so that she didn't have to reach far, to hug him and kiss him in thanks.

They had made a modest re-creation of the second place she and Laxus had stayed after they were married. They hadn't rebuilt the whole cottage by the lake, but they'd put down a wood-slat flooring near the forest pond, and covered it in multiple layers of Aries' softest wool. A second, slightly smaller deck had a small table and two chairs, and a small lacrima food storage container set to the side.

Hanging in surrounding trees were soft-glowing lacrima lamps. As the sun set, the lamps grew brighter, but only to a point. Lucy also noticed that they weren't in any one color. They were a variegated, shifting rainbow of loveliness that blanketed the entire area in a dream-like atmosphere.

"This is so much better than Crocus," she told him when he lowered her onto the woolen bed.

"Glad you approve. Cuz Crocus isn't happening. Ever."

She laughed, "You mean, _Crocus isn't happening until after you give birth_ , correct?"

He hesitated long enough for her to stop laughing.

"Correct...?" she repeated.

And he snorted, "Yeah, Lucy. Correct. Hard enough keeping you tied up when you're tired and puking. When you feel better again, I know you'll be right out the door..."

"What? What does _that_ mean?" Again, he was silent for just a moment too long, and it frightened her. "I'll travel again, of course. Go on jobs, eventually. After the baby's weaned. But... I'm not leaving, Laxus." She reached up to tug at him. Grabbing his shirt and pulling at him to join her on the bed he'd had made for them. Her magic; his gift. "I _bound_ myself to you, Laxus. I don't do things like that without consideration. Or thinking that it might be a temporary thing. When you asked me, when you suggested that we marry, I didn't say yes assuming we'd divorce. Or that we'd separate. _Ever_. My plan was to stay. As long as possible. As long as life allows me, my plan is to stay. That was true a year ago, and it is true today. My itchy feet don't take away my deep, deep longing and appreciation for _home_. And the one we have made together, Laxus, rushed and unplanned and desperate as it might be, has been a better home than any I've had since Mama died."

He pulled her to him, and continued to be speechless, but this quiet didn't frighten her. He trembled against her as he held her. The skin of his face was hot where it pressed, hiding, tucked under her hair, against her throat.

Laxus had been afraid. Still, very afraid.

"Porlyusica said the curse might change to the wife leaving," he mumbled, finally. "And you talk about leaving, a lot."

"I never talk about leaving _you_ ," she told him. "Just about traveling together. About wandering this Earthland and seeing it, together. There's a difference. So if I ever do talk about _leaving you_ , Laxus, that's probably not me. That's the curse, and we'll know it. So we can fight it."

"You won't wanna fight it, then, Lucy," he told her. Pulling back, looking at her directly.

"As long as I'm not dead, Laxus, assume I want to be here. In this place. I'm happy with the decision we made last year."

He put his face back against her throat, "Wonder if it ever would've happened..."

"Mmm," she shivered. The feel of his voice, his breath. The chill of the breeze. Her skin was over-sensitive recently, and she felt all of these things keenly. "I saw you. But I don't know. I can't say. I was always considering the curse."

"I saw you," he agreed, shifting on the bed. Moving his hand to slip under her dress and rest on her bare hipbone. "But I don't tangle with girls in the guild. Too messy."

"Possible, then. Possible, but very unlikely," she answered his idle thought. Reaching up to run her fingers through his hair, while admiring the scenery around them. "If this all works out, I think I'll end up being grateful."

"When this all works out," he said, "I'll end up being lucky as all hell."

She laughed, and he pushed himself up to devour her humor. To devour her gratitude. To devour her. And, in return, feed her pleasure.

And joy.

0000

"If this child kicks its way out of me, I'm blaming you," Lucy told her husband at the breakfast table. "I swear, it's going to be born knowing more martial arts than anyone in the whole of this country. Kid practices day and night. Kick, kick, kick. Damn, I've gotta pee." She started to stand up, and then sighed. Sat back down.

Laxus laughed. "At least you started wearing liners, right?"

"Bullshit. Absolute bullshit that I'm in diapers before this kid is. I'm sure this is your fault, somehow. No way do normal kids kick this hard." She rubbed her face in her hands. "Alright. Off to take a shower, I guess."

"Bath. Don't want you to fall."

"Yes, bath. That's what I meant."

"Need help up the stairs?"

"If you touch me, I'll kill you," she attempted to growl. It didn't seem to have much of an effect.

"Umhum. And how will you do that? What's that thing you do... wait, I remember... kicking, right? I'm pretty sure I remember you kicking a few people – friends, foes – unconscious. Odd that you're blaming _me_ for all this."

She grumbled and climbed the stairs, trying very hard to ignore his laughter. She was not successful.

0000

They walked through the forest, quiet, and calm. Laxus held her hand, not her arm. She was very serious about walking on her own. Otherwise he might have picked her up and carried her. But at about month five, she had managed to push him to leaving her alone.

At least, she thought she had. She'd been forced to shut him down at month seven, too. And now, rolling into the start of month eight, she could tell he was having problems letting her do as she wished. But he was holding her hand. And they were walking. Walking through the forest to meet Porlyusica for her weekly checkup.

Lucy was very careful. She knew if she so much as tripped over a twig, Laxus would have her off her feet. So each step was calculated. Which they were at home, too. Maneuvering with her vastly different body shape.

Well, not vastly different. Someone had joked last month about it being hard to see her feet, and she had replied that it had already been difficult. Luckily her breasts hadn't grown any during her pregnancy, as was common for many women. Her body had seemingly found what was already there to be more than enough.

Not exactly surprising.

Another reason she made sure to walk was to work out her limbs. Months five and six had seen a drastic worsening of her joint pain. It had since lessened, but lingered. Sometimes spiking, but not every day. She was dealing with it, of course, but not happily. A lot of warm towels and well-wrapped hot water bottles. As much exercise as Laxus and her spirits could be persuaded to allow. It helped. But it didn't cure.

She hurt, constantly.

But she endured.

There. There was Porlyusica's tree.

"Come in, come in," the old woman grouched. In a worse mood than usual, by the sound of it. "You know the drill by now. Don't just stand in my doorway."

Lucy and Laxus complied. He held the door open for her, and they both proceeded to wash their hands and generally clean themselves up before Lucy stepped behind the curtain to change into a medical gown.

"Give me the rundown," Porlyusica said, at the foot of the bed and between her knees. A position the three of them had become very used to the last seven months.

"I'm getting more tired, but it's getting harder to sleep at night. I'm restless. But exhausted. It might be the pain that makes me tired and also hard to sleep, but it hasn't seemed to change no matter the level of pain."

"Nausea?"

"No. I'm sticking to small meals, and I've been fine."

"Has the kicking settled."

"Yes. Kid's still moving, but I don't think it's trying to actively kick its way out anymore."

"That's fine, then. Energy's stabilized. Readying for labor. To be expected." Porlyusica pulled the scanner around. "What have your spirits said of the curse?"

"That it's tiding, like always. In my uterus, still. Drawing further into, and then flowing slightly out of, the baby."

"Their thoughts?"

"They think it might have something to do with the contrasting points of the curses. They can't lock onto the baby because it's not what either of them specifically want. Crux feels like if the curse was going to hold, it would have already attached. But it hasn't."

"So the fear is that it will remain in you."

"Correct," Lucy nodded.

Porlyusica paused a moment before looking up at her. "Would a hysterectomy remove the curse, if the curse is located in your uterus?"

Lucy blinked. "You mean if I deliver, and the curse is still there, remove my uterus...It might work." She bit her lip and considered. Doing her best to ignore her husband, who was vibrating concern. "Yeah. It might work."

"Think about it. Talk to the cross when you get back under wards where you can refresh your power better. Until then: Lay back." She turned on the lacrima scanner. "Let's see what we've got this week."

0000

Lucy had wondered how their physical relationship might change once she became pregnant, but their trip to Pearl – and every day, every week, every month since – put her mind at ease.

At ease.

She didn't want him to let go of her. Didn't want what they had started as a necessity to stay only that.

And apparently it wasn't.

He touched her still. And still she trembled. She called him still. And still he responded. Once she drove away that initial fear, he seemed to find contact needful.

She didn't deny him. When his hand rested on her hip a comfort washed over her, a feeling of home so deep that nothing, no memory in her life could match it.

It was a sort of love, she realized. Not necessarily romantic, but a comfortable passion.

As time moved forward and her pregnancy stretched her body into an awkward shape, she slept with her back to his chest. Cradled within the curve of his large form. When need touched them – his hand on her hip, her lips on his hand – they stayed curled, but for her leg pulled out to wrap around his calf and her arm to pull his face closer. Closer.

Closer.

Each month passed. Each month made the farce a truth...

They were a couple. A union. A family.

Cursed.

Still cursed. At least she was. Deep inside. That tide pulling in and out of her womb. Maybe it was what made him so desperate to touch her. She knew it was what drove her to call out to him.

His curse had emptied from him, as it was meant to do. Her curse had not … as it was meant to do.

They were both terrified they'd failed. But at least, Lucy told herself, she had lasted beyond 20. At least she hadn't become a walking plague. She'd have time. _They'd_ have time. To prepare. To grieve. Together.

To be happy. She could ensure that. Her mother had. Even knowing. Even with a clock counting down in her mind, awaiting the day she would die... _Her_ mother had given her and her father happiness. Light.

Lucy could do the same.

0000

"Ugh. It is such a pain in the ass, walking like this," Lucy told Levy as they made slow circles around the house.

Levy laughed. "Bisca says she was bigger at eight months and that you should be grateful your ankles aren't as swollen."

"Who could tell if they were?" Lucy muttered, looking down. Completely unable to see her feet.

"Ha! Like that's new. When have you _ever_ been able to check the state of your feet from that angle?" Her best friend lifted an eyebrow and pointed a finger at her chest.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Everyone says that, Levy. It is not an original joke."

"Who's joking?" Lucy wobbled, and Levy stabilized her. "I'm surprised Laxus went out – Master's orders or no – and let me take care of you. Even this far. I've never seen a man so overprotective in my life."

"Yes, well," Lucy shrugged. She went with the semi-truth they'd used since the start, "Neither of our mothers fared well from pregnancy."

"Meaning he's going to get _worse_ after," Levy put her arm through Lucy's and started leading her inside. It was cold. Probably going to snow soon.

"Mmm. Maybe. But hopefully not. I can fight him more when I'm not hauling this around," she made a circle with her finger around the reason her balance sucked, "and I'm a little more agile. Besides, our kid can't stay trapped in the house forever!"

"I can't believe you still don't know what it is."

"Right?!" Lucy poked her belly. "A kid of mine and Laxus' being so shy. Who could'a thought?"

The two women laughed at the irony of a Dreyar and Heartfilia kid shying away from attention.

Lucy fell into her chair, and Levy settled into the kitchen, preparing a brothy soup for the two of them. Lucy was having more and more trouble keeping food down this last month, and Levy had stopped by Porlyusica's place for some vitamins and protein replacements, which would hopefully stay down better.

At the very least, Lucy gave a bitter grin, it would come up easier.

"God, I need to pee again," she grumbled to the world at large. She had almost been asleep. Her chair was so comfortable. So comfortable that she couldn't get out of the damn thing.

Which set off the whole combo of back and joint pain that had been plaguing her the last seven months.

"Levy. Can you help me out here?"

Together they managed to roll her out of the cushion cocoon that was her favorite spot, which made her miss her stupidly strong husband, who could lift her up out of it like she was weightless. Levy's struggle made her feel a bit like a cow.

Lucy wobbled and stumbled her way to the first-floor bathroom, using the walls as support. Sitting on the toilet was a relief, and she did so with a long sigh.

She peed and peed and peed. And peed some more.

"Kid, you need to get off my bladder," she told her belly.

Wiping was awkward, like everything else, but something she could still do by her lonesome. Spotting early on had her checking the toilet water and paper every time before flushing, which was a little gross. But lots of stuff about being pregnant was gross. The vomiting and diarrhea were way grosser.

So she looked. She looked and saw yellowed gunk. Mucus.

Almost. _Almost_ she puked.

"Well, baby," she told her belly, "that's one way to get off my bladder, I guess."

Another shot of pain hit her back, and Lucy realized what it was. Not the usual pain, but the start of contractions.

If she'd lost her mucus plug, and she was cramping in her back, this thing was happening.

"Okay," she told the bathroom. "This is okay. I'm fully planned for this. Sure. We expected Laxus would be here since he has _barely left my side in months_. And you're a few weeks early. But you're big enough, and I'm healthy enough. We're fine."

Lucy pulled up her underwear, down her dress, and made her careful way back to Levy and the kitchen.

"So," she drawled at her bestest girlfriend in all of Earthland, "feel like joining me for a trip to Porlyusica's and watching me pop this kid out?"

Levy blinked. "Wha...what?"

"I'm starting the whole labor thing. Let's get to the healer's."

"Oh hell, no!" Levy screamed, waving her hands in front of her. "You aren't going anywhere. Porlyusica can come to you! Holy crap. Holy crap... _Holy crap_! Where is your communicator? Need to call … Laxus. He can pick her up. Bring her here... oh crap. Oh crap!"

"Dating Gajeel and _crap_ is as good as I can get from you?" Lucy laughed. She was kind of enjoying Levy's freakout.

She listened as Levy frantically explained the situation to Laxus. Lucy heard the clap of thunder instead of words in response.

"This will probably take a bit," Lucy tried comforting her friend. "I haven't even started full contractions, yet." Though there was a certain cramping in her gut and legs that might work into a contraction if it came shorter and quicker. "And who knows if I'm dilated..."

"Which is exactly why you need Porlyusica! Oh my god, why are you still standing up? Sit down!"

For all that Levy claimed to be concerned, Lucy mused, she sure did shove pretty hard.

She was lounging on the couch with Levy fretting behind her when a loud crack of thunder brought her husband and her midwife (she'd never call Porlyusica that to her face) through the door.

"What took you so long?" she asked with a smile.

"Porlyusica needed to get some shit. How are you?" He stood beside her, hand lifted to touch her cheek, but he didn't move the final inch. Cautious. Too cautious. She leaned forward, into him.

"Fine. Fine-ish," she corrected, wincing.

"Ish?"

"The cramping isn't exactly pleasant," she explained.

He grunted.

"Stop with makin' eyes at each other and get her into a bed. Girl," Porlyusica spat at Levy, "until Wendy gets here, you're going to be my assistant. Wash your hands, tie back your hair, and make sure there's some hot water boiling. Then come up and check with me. Might need you to do something else."

Levy nodded, Lucy noticed absently as she was swung around in a gentle arc, being lifted and turned to go up the stairs into their room.

"Should we change the sheets?" Lucy asked Porlyusica. "Is it a problem that they're not clean? From a hygienic point of view?"

"No. Sheets are fine. You've got the chair?"

"Yeah," Laxus confirmed, nodding to the angled birthing bed/chair contraption the healer had suggested they get early on into the pregnancy.

"You'll be on that when the important stuff happens. That's what needs to be really clean. Bed's just so that you're comfortable."

"'K." Lucy grunted as an actual, for real, contraction hit her.

"How do you truly feel, girl?" Porlyusica asked her, eyebrows raised. Now that Levy was not with them, Lucy knew what the question really wanted answered.

"I've never done this before, so I can't..." she hissed, "I can't compare it to anything. But from reading, it feels right."

"Anything at all unusual?"

Lucy took a moment to think. She licked her lips. "My mouth. My mouth tastes a little metallic."

"Did you eat?"

"No. No, Levy was making lunch, but we didn't get to it," she explained.

Porlyusica nodded and began a round of questioning and prodding. She then went downstairs to intercept Levy while instructing Laxus to change her out of the dress she was wearing into something a little shorter and easier to manipulate. And without undergarments.

Lucy grunted only once or twice with cramps and frustration.

Levy and Porlyusica were back in the room a few minutes after she was changed. Hauling in water and excitingly horrifying instruments. The old woman snapped on gloves and instructed her husband and friend to do the same – just in case – and, like it was nothing at all, slipped two fingers inside her with a second hand resting on top of her belly.

"Well, you're opening, but not fully dilated, yet." Porlyusica removed her hands and tossed the left-hand glove aside, replacing it with a fresh one. "Can't tell now what rate you're going at, but it feels like you're at about a third of the way there."

Lucy swallowed and nodded. Levy looked like she was about to pass out. Laxus had his arms crossed and his face was flat and emotionless. Lucy figured he was also about to pass out.

"Alright, girl. Let's begin."

Lucy shuddered as another contraction squeezed her insides. The taste of metal filled her. She looked at her husband. Her husband looked at her. She reached for him, and he took her hand.

He comforted her with his presence and his warmth.

But she was scared.

She was scared.

Time passed as she and the chair were properly cleaned. Wendy arrived. Her cervix was checked again for dilation. Almost there. Almost there.

She grunted.

God, it was not comfortable. Not at all. She felt full. Full of something. Full of everything. Stuffed. Overstuffed. There was too much inside her, and god, oh god, it hurt so much.

She began to cry.

"Girl, what's wrong?"

"Hurts," she said. "Hurts."

But did it hurt? It wasn't exactly pain. But she didn't have another word to properly describe the feeling.

"Can I push? Can I push, yet? I think it wants to come out...It wants me to push..." she was sweating. Frantic. Could hardly breathe.

The world around her was blurry. She could barely see Laxus, and he was closest to her, still. The other two, Porlyusica and Wendy, were splotches of color between her knees.

Her heart began to race.

"Oh god. Oh god, it hurts!"

There were sounds, she thought. Other people speaking. Maybe. Echos of her own words, trapped in the empty void of her anguish. Or maybe there were no sounds, and she was just delirious. Maybe even she was silent.

Until she wasn't.

She couldn't be.

It was too much.

Too much.

She screamed. She had expected some level of discomfort, but this wasn't pressure and stretching. She was being ripped in half.

She screamed as light left the world and oily darkness slid from her. Over her. Was her.

She screamed, and was consumed.

She screamed, and was hollowed.

She screamed, and her screams were the only sounds that existed in all of time. The world was silent save for her pain and her grief.

Her guilt and her curse.

And the darkness that brought complete silence.

0000

+++0000+++

0000

Laxus' life went mad in a matter of minutes. They had thought it was fine. Everything had been fine. All of her scans and all of her blood work. Every month. And the last hour, she had breathed and they had watched her, and she had been fine.

Then Lucy's hand had turned to ice inside his own, and he heard the gasp that portended a shriek. He grabbed at her. Yelled for Porlyusica, who had turned for water only seconds before the worst noise he had ever heard was torn from Lucy's throat. Torn. Ripped. Shredded. He could smell the blood on her breath.

And shadow began to wisp out from between her legs. Then pour. It sank and then covered the floor like fog as Lucy lashed out. She seized, violently. Limbs thrashing, and muscles twitching. Her breathing had caught, and she was making odd choking sounds.

Porlyusica couldn't stop her, so she turned to Wendy.

Wendy couldn't heal her, so she called for Chelia.

And he had to leave. He had to leave because he was the only one who could get the sky god-slayer in time. Fear, a fear he had never felt before – and he'd felt so much fear for Lucy in the last year and a half – ripped at his flesh.

It was minutes between leaving and returning. Minutes. Minutes. But would she be there when he returned?

Would she be there?

Would she be there?

Would she be there?

He grabbed the girl. Grabbed Chelia. Grabbed the healer. He grabbed the girl. Minutes. Only minutes.

Was she still there?

Was she still there?

Was she still there?

She was on the bed. Not the chair. Her limbs were still. Laxus' heart stuttered, faltered. Then her chest moved, but barely.

Chelia joined Wendy. Joined Porlyusica.

The shadows, which lingered still in the room, darkened and rose. Still flowing from his wife. His unconscious wife.

Lucy's lips were red-flecked blue.

Mira, who was a warrior in shadows, was called.

Levy, who had a vast knowledge beyond what any others in the room could imagine, was called.

Freed, who could create protective barriers more advanced than almost any other in the world, was called.

And when the room was full of wizards and darkness, their baby came. Came, but was not born. Emerged, but not into life.

The shadows had killed it.

The curse had killed it.

He had killed it.

0000X0000

**Author's Note:**

Now we get into the heart of why I wrote this story. Outside of the fandom constantly having Mira shouting for babies while the guild is (seemingly) filled with orphans … My mom had two stillborn children before having me and my younger sib. I've known since I was very little (five or six) that those two HAD to die for my family to be what it is. My parents planned on having two children. Had they lived, I wouldn't be. Had one of them lived, my younger sib wouldn't be. It's a tragedy, but one necessary for the life of me and my sibling. It's something I think about all the time.

In November 2015, a friend I grew up with and have known all my life had her second child. About a month later, her two-year-old daughter died in an accident. It was an accident, totally and completely. But one my friend could have – if I'm completely callous – prevented. You know it's going to eat her up for the rest of her life. Her newborn was the only thing keeping her going. Is. Is the only thing keeping her going.

When I told my mom what had happened to my friend, my mom told me something to the effect of, "god that's awful... I know I feel guilty about my babies, but that's just … that's awful..."

And christ if that didn't nearly end me then and there. Not that I expect my mom to be OVER it or anything... but it's been decades since. Decades. Multiples of decades. And they didn't die because of something she actively did wrong. Her body just didn't want to carry babies a full 9 months or something. My sib and I got taken early, and we made it. We were tiny, but we made it. It wasn't her fault, she didn't drink or smoke or do anything wrong, but she feels guilty. I think of them a lot, and there's guilt in me that I'm grateful. Mom, apparently, is just all guilt. And she shouldn't be. She shouldn't be. And it ruins me that she is...

I had the thought about Laxus and his single gender family, about Lucy's mom and her slow death and passing on the keys, and formed the idea behind the story at first... but it didn't really click until I thought of Mom. Because my mom was cursed... It wasn't shadow and magic, but goodness knows, that must have been what it felt like.

This... this story isn't going to make that better or anything. But that feeling I got from my mom at that time is what drove me into writing this story, especially this part of this story. So... yeah.

Allow me to preach for a second, please: Baby making is hard as fuck. Don't assume everyone can do it. Don't assume everyone wants to do it. I know people who would love to have children, who can't have children. Women who want to be pregnant, to have that experience, but have had physical problems (cancer or general infertility) stopping them. Adoption is an option, but it's not a perfect one. You have to qualify, and that can be very difficult, the process is long, and it can be very expensive. Pregnancy is expensive, too, but depending on the market, adoption can get extremely pricey. And that's before you even get to the raising of the kid part. Also, there are plenty of people who don't want children at all, and if they're responsible about it (you know, birth control and all that) more power to them. Unless you want to go care for the children you're totally sure they'll want and then oops, no, they were right about themselves, they didn't, keep your opinions to yourself.

...point I'm making here is... please don't judge. Everyone has their own demons. It's not always a wedding and babies at the end.

Also, don't simply flame me because I didn't give these two a perfect picket-fence ending with this pregnancy. This is fanfiction. Every avenue of plot possibility is open to us. We can do anything. "Happily ever after", fairy tale wedding and two-plus kids is a cliché you can find in lots of places. It's not one you typically find with me. I'm sorry if this is your first story with me and you weren't aware of that fact.

See you in chapter 8, if you decide to stay with me. I'll understand if you don't.


	8. Lasting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Laxus watches Lucy struggle and struggles himself.

Family

Chapter Eight

Lasting

He was a very emotional man. But because he was also a very powerful – very physically strong and very magically strong – man it was necessary to contain those emotions. To police himself.

He'd slipped so many times over the years. More often when he was younger and less strong, less powerful, but he'd broken once or twice after cracking mid-range level of dragon-slayer magic and touching the potential of dragon-force.

Dangerous. So dangerous.

That was _years_ ago.

The Laxus at that point was a young, weak boy compared to the man he was now. And the Laxus at that point had never felt the depth and range of emotions that crushed him in that room, drowning in shadow.

"Lucy," Wendy called to her. The girl caressed Lucy's face, which was washed of color and heat, just like the rest of her. Brushing a thumb over her cheek, and lifting Lucy's eyelids, Wendy studied her. Laxus felt the hair on his arms lift up as the youngest dragon slayer pumped power into his dying wife.

Behind them, Mira and Freed worked to contain the shadow, while Porlyusica explained the rough outline of the situation to Levy. At least, the situation of the pregnancy. The marriage was left alone. Levy pulled a large book with a heavily detailed cover from a bag that it was too small to fit in; she slipped on glasses and began to read in the far corner of the room.

Chelia stood by Lucy's right hip and had a hand cupped over her pubis. Laxus had no clue why. She wasn't injured. Not physically. Not vaginally. There was blood on her breath, still. But only there.

No one was healing that.

Maybe Wendy was. Probably she was.

What did he know?

Nothing.

Not one goddamn thing.

Conversation rose and drifted around him. Words were spoken that Laxus barely heard and didn't remotely understand. He focused all of his attention on Lucy. On the faint thrum of the artery in her throat, and the infrequent rise and fall of her chest.

Their baby was dead, wrapped in a sheet – one of the clean ones Lucy had set aside in case Porlyusica wanted them to change the bed – and layer upon layer of containment runes to hold in the shadows, and taken downstairs. Laxus had been torn between following the small, cold bundle, and staying in the room.

But he stayed. He stayed. Someone had to watch her pulse. Monitor the blood on her breath.

Sure, Wendy was probably, _probably_ , doing that. But he should do it, too.

She was still alive. She was still alive.

He couldn't have said how long it was between the shadows and his grandfather entering the cleaned, protected space. Couldn't have said how long it was before the old man took a position of watchfulness beside him. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Waiting for their family, the newest name in their small book, to wake. To return. To _heal_.

Laxus wasn't a stupid man. And he knew that was an ignorant thought. A fucking _ignorant_ thought.

To heal. Yeah, right. Like it was that simple. Like it would happen while they _stood_ there. Yeah. Right. He was a bloody moron.

Levy was conjuring water, and the girls were stripping her to her skin. Some absent part of his brain was disturbed by the quiet of his grandfather. His lecherous grandfather. But Lucy was dying, and they both knew it.

Laxus' wife; Gramps' granddaughter-in-law. Their guildmate of years. She was dying. And there was nothing to find humor in no matter what the dark corners of his brain might tease him with.

Two women and two girls – three healers and one scholar, who had left her corner and was whispering to Porlyusica as she lifted Lucy's hair and tied it to the side, under her ear – carefully cleaned Lucy, inch by inch, while Laxus and Makarov paid witness. Laxus wanted to help, but he couldn't move. If he moved, he was afraid he'd lose the perfect view he had of her pulse. And he had to see it. Had to watch it. Had to know.

And Gramps didn't leave his side.

When she was clean, and dried, Levy took out a pen and wrote words on her. Not runes he recognized, not the language he'd seen so often from from Freed, but words of a language foreign and magical. They stank of magic.

As each word was finished, Levy consulted the three healers before moving onto a new patch of skin and a new word. At her heart, her wrists, over her womb, her left eyelid, and the arch of her right foot, Levy used her pen to put magic into Lucy's shadow-riddled body. And it helped. Chelia and Wendy followed each word with power of their own, and it helped.

When the magic was finished, they wiped her down with water again, and dried her.

Gramps had stayed through the whole thing, and watched with him. Laxus wasn't sure if he could feel the magic of Levy or the girls, or the fluctuating strength of Lucy the way he could, but it didn't matter, Gramps stayed.

When she was redressed, Gramps didn't leave his side. When Freed returned to the room with more medical equipment in hand, and the old woman began to attach things to her at the wrist and at the heart, Gramps didn't leave his side. As Wendy and then Chelia bent down to kiss her, to breathe for her – twice, two breaths each, and the air was cleaned of the stench of blood – his grandfather stayed still and solid at his side.

Laxus worked to emulate him.

One by one, the others left. Words, so many words, none of them magic, were spoken. Laxus nodded as if he spoke and understood language. His gramps, too, nodded. Which was good. The old man would understand. He would translate. At some point. When Laxus came back. From wherever he was. Because he knew he was gone. Gone off. Out of it. He knew.

But he had to be. He had to be, to not destroy everything.

Gramps knew that. When times were bad, his gramps always knew.

When they were gone and it was just the three of them, just three Dreyars in a quiet room, Laxus let some of his power drip from him. The rug burned. Instantly, Gramps was twice his size and between Laxus and Lucy. The old man put himself between him and his wife, as if he was a risk...

He was a risk.

He knew that.

He'd known that.

Of course he was.

"Sorry," Laxus mumbled. Remembering. Remembering words. "I'm so sorry."

Gramps returned to his natural size. "It was always a possibility, Laxus. Death was always a possibility."

"I know. I know." And he did know. He had known. He'd prepared himself for it. Back in those many months before she'd gotten pregnant. Especially those last few months before she turned 20, when it wasn't happening and she was almost, almost, almost dead. He'd thought he'd prepared himself.

But then it was alright. Then it was okay. Then they were happy. And he'd forgotten how to be prepared for death. Because he had so much not wanted them to die. But he should have known better. He wasn't that lucky of a man.

"You still have her," his grandfather was gentle, but also stern.

"I know."

He did know. He knew that, too.

But things would change. Possibilities weren't expectations, and sure as shit weren't desires. She was alive; he was alive, but what did that mean?

He swallowed and almost choked on his sadness. On the chunks of his heart that were ripped into pieces and scattered around the hollowed shell of him.

"What do I do?" He wasn't the sort of man to ask for help, but he was so out of his element. He turned to his grandfather, the man who raised him and his guild master, and almost fell to his knees. "What do I do?"

His gramps brushed a slightly shaking hand over Lucy's guild-marked skin. "You watch over her until she wakes up. Care for her. Guard her. You let us help. We'll bury the baby in the family plot. It needs to be done soon, Laxus. Porlyusica and the others estimate Lucy'll be unconscious for a week, maybe more. The baby needs to be buried tomorrow."

Laxus nodded. He rubbed his hands over his face and tried to think. He wished they could wait, because he had some vague feeling that it would be easier for Lucy … not easy, but easier … if she could be there to see a funeral. To see the transition. To be in the process of giving birth and then to wake up a week later, and there be nothing but a grave...

Fuck. Fuck. That was... Fuck.

That was what'd happened with her dad.

Laxus' shoulders slumped. Having _another_... fuck that wasn't good. But Gramps was right. It wasn't something that could be put off indefinitely.

"Tomorrow, then," Laxus said. "As quiet as it can be. I mean, I'd prefer just you and me, but I know that's not happening. But... not the whole guild." He again rubbed his face. He again tried to _think_. "Porlyusica, Wendy, and Chelia can come. Levy. If they want."

He wouldn't want, if he were them. But they weren't him. Maybe it would mean something to them. He wasn't sure. But since Lucy couldn't be there, someone like Porlyusica, who had stood with them from the start, should be allowed, he reasoned. Wendy, who probably saved her life. And Chelia, who had stepped in when they were most desperate, should also be allowed.

Levy, who was one of Lucy's closest friends, and who had been through her side through all of it. Who had also probably saved her life. She would make a good witness for Lucy, when Lucy finally woke. That was if Levy wanted to come, either.

He would understand if they didn't come.

He swallowed and this time it burned. Acid. He was dehydrated and suppressing too much of his power. The second couldn't be helped. The first could.

"I can't leave," he told Makarov. "I can't. Can you..." god, he was a monster of a person, "can you send someone to me? So I can... so I can make arrangements? Freed, at least. If Freed's willing to talk to me."

Laxus had seen the expression on Freed's face. Behind the horror and worry, there were hints of betrayal. Laxus wasn't sure any of his team would be up to seeing him for a few days. That was if he could manage spending time with anyone in the first place, which wasn't a given.

"I'll take care of it," his Gramps said, and Laxus almost cried, because that's what he had hoped the old man would say. Because that's what he had wanted to ask for. Because Laxus wasn't sure he could talk to anyone else. Wasn't sure that language wouldn't fail him again. Wasn't sure that control wouldn't fail him.

"Thanks."

He meant it. More than he'd meant it in years. Maybe ever.

"What else do you need, my boy?"

Laxus swallowed, "Something to drink. And a barrier to protect Lucy if I lose control over my magic while I'm with her."

Makarov nodded. Opened his mouth as if he would say more, but then decided against it, and nodded once again. On his way out, the old man wrapped his small hand around Laxus' wrist. "Watch over her, boy, but watch over yourself, too. You can't protect her if you lose yourself."

It was Freed who returned with a large glass of water, and a pitcher to go with it. He was surprised. He'd expected Levy, who, while not as perfect with the runes, was good enough. And had only looked heartbroken when she looked at him. But it was Freed who came.

When Laxus needed him, it was Freed who came. He gave the man his gratitude in a solemn nod when he took the water, and then actually said the words. Like with his grandfather, Laxus _meant_ those words. He meant his thanks. But Freed kept to silence.

While Laxus drank, his long-time friend and teammate wrote a complex series of runes on their bed, protecting his wife from his inevitable emotional breakdown.

It was inevitable. He could feel the beginnings of it between his shoulder blades and in the tips of his fingers. Control was tenuous, at best. His mind was a tempest. He tried to think, but thinking wasn't helping. It was tightening and tightening and tightening the rope around his emotions. Too tight. It would snap.

But he didn't know how to stop it. Normally he'd go out and punch something. Blow something to tiny bits. But now wasn't the time for fighting or destruction. He couldn't leave her side to vent the pressure building inside him.

So he would break soon. But Freed had protected her.

"Thank you," he told the man once more as he finished and began to walk away.

Freed said no word in response. He met his eyes, though, and the betrayal was gone. Laxus didn't understand it, since nothing had been explained. But, like Levy, all that was in him now was heartbreak. Freed turned away, still in silence, and left. Laxus didn't hold it against him.

Then, finally, it was just the two of them. Just Lucy and Laxus. And when it was quiet, and dark, he sat on the bed beside her and cried.

What else could a man do?

0000

That first week, Wendy moved in. The room Lucy had carefully designated and designed as a nursery, Laxus had quickly re-purposed as a guest room for Wendy. It wasn't too difficult, really, given that it just required removing the crib and changing table and adding a small bed. All of the decorations had been very neutral.

Lucy hadn't wanted to personalize until she knew what their baby was like. She didn't want to inflict her own, or their own, personality on the kid. Even as a newborn.

_Everyone needs the freedom to be themselves_ , she had told him, while supervising his painting the room a bright but inoffensive yellow. _We won't force this kid into any shape that doesn't suit_.

It had turned out cheery but unadorned, which worked fine as a guest room, he supposed.

So making the space comfortable for Wendy was easy. Even if having Wendy in his home was stressful. He needed her. He needed her because Lucy needed her. But a large part of him just wanted to crawl into a dark corner and lick his wounds, and the young woman's own raw emotions were like sandpaper on burned flesh.

But he needed her, so Laxus bore the pain.

At least the girl left her exheed at Fairy Hills. He wasn't sure who she thought she was sparing, the cat, or him, but either way he was glad. On a random day, he thought the white cat was actually kind of amusing. He and Wendy didn't spend a lot of time together, so he didn't know Carla, not really, but her attitude reminded him of himself, sometimes, and he was narcissistic enough to find that hilarious. On a good day.

It hadn't been a good day. Not for several days. He was barely handling Wendy, and she was as inoffensive a person as there probably was in all of Earthland.

So it was just him and Wendy in the house.

And Lucy.

Porlyusica told him if he were careful, he could still share a bed with Lucy, since the runes were in place, after all. With permission, and protection, Laxus slept beside her. Knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to sleep anywhere else because he wouldn't want to risk her waking up in the middle of the night alone. If he could live without sleep and just sit beside her and watch, watch until she woke, he would do that, but he couldn't. So he'd take what he could get.

"Laxus?" Wendy called from the door of his bedroom. Her way of knocking, since he left the door open, now. He wanted no barriers between them and the healer in case there was an emergency.

"Mmm?" he mumbled. He'd been awake for almost an hour, but stayed in bed. Unable to bring himself to do anything else. She'd been unconscious for five days.

The first day after, on the day they had buried the baby, Wendy had stayed with Lucy. Laxus had been frantic, not wanting to leave her, but Wendy had offered to stay. She was already there, and she said she wanted to monitor her healing.

Laxus was pretty sure it was just something she said. The girl was also, he was pretty sure, monitoring _his_ healing.

The funeral, if it could be called that since it was really just them putting a tiny casket in the ground, was small. Gramps, Porlyusica, Levy, Mira, Lucy's team, and his team. There'd been no words. Nothing said. No fighting. A lot of tears. None of them his. He'd done his crying with Lucy, and was too empty by the time he arrived at the cemetery to feel more than cold.

The coldest he'd ever felt.

Poor thing, going into ground that cold.

They hadn't lingered by the graveside. Maybe the others had gone back to the guild. His team, and his gramps, had offered to walk him back, but he refused. Walking was a waste of time.

He was away from her for less than an hour. Every minute had hurt.

Wendy entered his line-of-sight and offered a soft, sweet, pitying smile. "I'm awake, now. You can shower. I'll do my check while you do."

He nodded and stretched. They'd gotten into the easy pattern on the second day. She'd do a morning check up while he showered. When he finished, he'd come out with wash cloths and a loose dress, and the two of them together would clean and clothe her.

It was a struggle. Undignified, at times. Lucy'd likely be very embarrassed by the whole thing. But between his strength and Wendy's finesse, the two of them were able to keep Lucy in good shape for yet another day.

"She's mending, Laxus," Wendy told him when she brought up breakfast. Leftovers of whatever Mira had brought for dinner the night before. He hardly paid attention as it went from the plate to his mouth. Nothing more than fuel.

Reaching over to brush a bit of hair off of her neck, he made an absent sound of discontent. "In what way? And what does that even mean? _Mending_. She wasn't really _damaged_."

"The delivery damaged her, which you know, but that isn't what left her unconscious. That was the curse, and those shadows, and that did cause a sort of damage inside of her. Mira and Freed were able to gather those up as they came out of her, but in emptying from her they drained her completely of energy and sort of ripped up her magical container as they went. All of that is more psychic damage than physical damage, sure, which means it's not possible for me to fix directly. I can only impart to her a little extra energy to help her do her own healing. But it's happening. I can tell."

"How can you tell?" he demanded an explanation from her. She'd been optimistic since the first day, but all he could see was the same thing, every day. A breathing corpse.

"She's more flush. More vibrant. Her magic is humming with more life than it did that day. She's recovering, Laxus. Trust that I know _my_ magic. Trust that I know what healing is. I'm not lying to you. I promise. In body, in magic, in simple recovery, I think she should be awake next week."

_That_ he didn't need an explanation for. _Simple_ recovery. Waking up would be the easy part... and so far, it wasn't easy.

He grunted and nodded at the sky dragon slayer. Wendy nodded in return and politely left the room so that he could climb back into bed with her. She didn't tell him that maybe it wasn't the healthiest behavior, or that maybe he should do something other than stare at her for dozens of hours on end. Which was a kindness on her part. Or an awareness that there was nothing she could do to change his behavior, and had nothing at all to do with kindness.

"I'm sorry, Lucy," he told his sleeping wife. "I'm sorry."

He just didn't know what else to say.

0000

Lucy woke three days later, seemingly unable to breathe. Porlyusica's lacrima monitors screamed out through the house alerting him that she was in a panic. He had been in the shower.

Wendy was in the room with her.

He threw open their bathroom door to see the girl lay magic on Lucy's throat and heart, and watched as her breathing evened out. But the panic in her wide brown eyes remained unchanged. Though he was still wet and wore nothing more than a towel, he moved beside Wendy to take his wife's hand.

"Lucy. Lucy?"

"Take it slowly, Laxus. She's going to be confused. Scared." Wendy's voice was barely a whisper. Lucy wouldn't have been able to make out the words, he was sure.

Laxus nodded. "Lucy, it's me. Can you hear me?"

A dumbass question. He couldn't believe he was asking it, but he was at a loss for a place to start. When she didn't immediately respond to him, the question seemed less absurd. "Lucy, can you hear me?"

Her eyes flitted, frantic, as if searching for something. A way out. Escape. Laxus wondered if she'd dreamed while she'd been unconscious. If she'd had nightmares. She was so obviously terrified.

"Lucy, it's Laxus. You're awake. You're safe. You're home." He put his hand on her cheek and tried to carefully direct her gaze to his face and his face alone, and to do so without startling her. "You're safe. You're with me, me and Wendy. You're home."

"Laxus?" she said in a choking, cracking voice. He could only really tell she said his name by the movement of her tongue and lips, the sound that came from her unused throat was such a mess.

He nodded reassurance, "Yes."

The panic dulled, slightly. And she fainted.

"Wendy!"

Blue hair ducked under his chin and pushed his hand aside. She checked her magic. Clicked her tongue. Ran her hands over Lucy's skull, pulled open her eyelids and checked her pupils, and looked over Porlyusica's instruments.

"Too much stimulation, I think." Wendy bit her lip. "This is where we get to the _complex_ healing, Laxus."

"I know," he told her. "I know." Laxus thought of the small grave in the town cemetery, and the unnamed entry in the little book tucked away in Gramps' office. He swallowed and suppressed a shudder so the girl wouldn't see. "I know. I'll make it right."

She frowned, "We'll help, Laxus. You know that."

"I don't want too many people in here at a time, overwhelming her, but yeah, I know. And she'll need people."

Wendy looked up at the ceiling and then back down at him. "And what about you?"

The muscles in his shoulders tensed.

"What about you, Laxus?"

"I don't know what you mean."

The tiny girl took a step closer. "No one but Mira and I have been here in a week. You haven't seen Master Makarov since the funeral. You haven't seen the Raijinshuu. What about _you_ , Laxus. Porlyusica told me the story, you know. _You_ were cursed, too. _You_ need healing, too. And even if you weren't, she's your wife, and it was your child. So what about you?"

"I'll be fine." He told her, trying not to bite off the words. Trying not to growl. Trying not to show his teeth. Trying not to yell. To scream.

To cry. To weep. To beg.

"Lucy's the one who needs help, now."

"You once helped me fight a dragon," Wendy told him. "I want you to know that anytime you need me I am here to help you fight this."

Laxus wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he nodded and stepped to the side so that he wasn't directly in her view. Together they waited for Lucy to regain consciousness a second time.

She came back to them in waves. The second time, she panicked again, though she stayed with them for minutes, instead of seconds, before fainting. She was out for a shorter period of time before waking a third time, when she was less frantic, more willing to listen, to respond. Because of the week of unconscious she was exhausted and weak. Barely able to move her limbs.

The fourth time she came to, they managed to get some lukewarm tea into her to soothe her throat. The fifth brought back the panic, as she seemed to forget all the previous wakings, but the sixth returned her memories and had her remarkably calm. So did the seventh and the eighth.

"Laxus," she croaked, her voice still rough with disuse.

"Yes." He had been at her side for hours, now. Watching her wake and sleep and wake and sleep in rapidly decreasing intervals. "I'm here."

"What happened?"

He sucked in a breath. This was the question he had been dreading. He was glad Wendy had finally gone to bed.

"How much do you remember?"

"I thought..." she squinted. The dark shadows around her eyes made her sockets look hollow in the evening gloom of their room. He shuddered. "I thought we died. The three of us. It hurt so much, and I could _feel_ the curse backlash on me. I thought we died," the last was said in a whisper.

"Not you," he told her, reaching out for her hand. "Not me," squeezing it. "But the baby. The baby died, Lucy."

He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know _how else_ to say it. Small tremors shook him, and he was glad, once more, of the protective runes on their bed.

Lucy stared at him. With those big brown eyes. She stared at him.

"Oh."

He watched as she processed what he told her. He watched as she stopped looking at him and turned inward, connecting the information with what spotty memories she retained of that day. He watched her understand what it meant, his words and those memories, and he watched her fall into sorrow at that understanding.

"Died?"

"Yes."

She wilted, and was weakened. "My fault."

"Our fault," he corrected her. "Our fault."

Her body gave a strong shiver, almost a seizure, a convulsion. Once, twice. She was – he realized – holding in several extreme reactions, and they were overpowering her.

"Lucy. Lucy. It's okay. I'm here."

She sobbed and allowed herself to be pulled against him. It was only the fact that her face was pressed into his shoulder that kept the sob from being a scream, he thought. She was struggling to respond to the world she'd woken up to. He held her while she cried, and he wondered where they'd go from here.

0000

She was the only thing that mattered.

He told himself that over and over. He told himself that, constantly. It helped to ground him in something that wasn't his own shockingly profound – and lasting – grief.

He hadn't expected to enjoy being married to her, but he had. He'd more than enjoyed it. He hadn't expected to be excited about her pregnancy, but he had been. More than excited. He hadn't expected to plan, to hope and to plan so far into such a detailed future for them. For their family. But he had. He had hoped. He had planned.

And then the darkness came and ripped them all to pieces. To pieces.

He wanted to hate her. So, so much. He hadn't felt pain like... such pain … not since he was a child had he felt pain so deep. He wanted to hate her because without her there would be no pain.

But she had also been the cause of the happiness, the excitement, and those future hopes. Hating her wasn't something he could do. And it wasn't something she deserved. Not with her suffering so much already.

She was the only thing that mattered. His every day became consumed with keeping her alive. At first, it was the shadow itself that threatened her. Then it was her own darkness that fought to take her. Depression. Guilt. Shame.

Laxus saw it. Understood it. And helped guard her, best as he could.

It was impossible to say, each morning, what kind of morning it would be. Some days she was responsive. Other days, less so. He would wake her, uncertain whether she would bother waking on her own, and then help her to the bathroom.

On good days, she would manage on her own, moving from the bed to guide herself along the wall. Even a month later, her muscles were weak and her core, she told Wendy, felt wounded. Wendy told him that she wasn't certain how much of this was actually physical and how much of it was psychological. The shadow damage was hard to monitor, but the bruising, as Wendy called it, seemed mostly healed to her.

On bad days, Laxus carried her to the bathroom. Carefully, he bathed her. Helped her to bathe. She couldn't look at him, and he was afraid to touch her because she was so obviously afraid to be touched. But on the bad days, on the days when she hurt the most and had the least amount of energy, she couldn't manage on her own.

Then he would carry her to the kitchen. On the truly terrible days, of which there were two or three, particularly after she convinced him to take her to the cemetery, he hand fed her. Her hands shook too much to hold a fork. The first few days she couldn't keep down food. On the bad-but-not-terrible days, he carried her to the living room, sat her beside the largest window with a book, and called Mira to make a report.

On good days, she would find the chair on her own two legs, if slowly, and they'd be able to speak to one another. Not much, but a little.

Every few days someone from the guild would come. Mira and Levy most often, but Natsu and Happy, too, and Gray was frequent. They were quiet. She smiled for them, and it ripped him to pieces inside that she felt like she had to put on that mask. False and awful. No one expected that but her.

In the evenings, Gramps had replaced Mira most of the time in bringing them dinner at night. On good days, he would stay and eat with them. On bad days, Laxus would let him know ahead of time just to leave the food. About half the time, one of Laxus' teammates would come along.

His gramps wasn't happy with him, but he was careful not to let Lucy see that unhappiness.

"How are you, boy?" Gramps asked, walking through the door. Alone, this time.

Laxus shrugged. It was the first thing his gramps always asked when he came over, and Laxus had yet to find the right words to answer.

"Lucy?"

"She's... the same. I don't know what to do." Comfort wasn't a skill he was known for, and he hadn't become a master of it in the last month.

The old man bowed his head in understanding, "It's a hard question to answer, I know."

"I've thought about taking her away a bit, Crocus or Pearl or somewhere, but I'm worried she might need the guild more than she might need quiet."

"So might you," Gramps wasn't exactly subtle.

Laxus shrugged again.

"Boy-"

"I know, Gramps, I know. But she's gotta come first, right now."

"As long as you take care of yourself at some point."

Laxus nodded, but kept his words inside. Being married to a celestial wizard had made him cautious about his promises.

Gramps did what he could, Laxus knew, but Laxus also knew his job was to focus on her. So he took the food the old man brought, and they ate dinner together.

Then, good day or bad, he would carry her upstairs. By the time night fell, she was too tired to make the walk up the stairs no matter how strong she had been that morning. He would help her tend to what needed tending, and watch her crawl into bed as if she planned to die there... so tired. So worn. So... unmoved.

That was the hardest part of _his_ day. He was afraid of what might happen if he took his eyes off of her, but … the pain was in him, too. Like his grandfather said. And it needed to be siphoned off.

_And there are wards_ , he reminded himself. Every night. Set by Freed. And reinforced by Levy. She was safe. He could go for an hour or two and train.

She was already asleep.

He left. The thunder would not wake her. It never did.

He landed deep in the forest into a piece of land that he owned. It was his, so he didn't feel bad about what he did there.

He raged. Once, there were trees on that piece of land, and now there was a hole.

He raged.

Magic filled him, and magic left him. He called power and demanded destruction.

To a certain extent, he couldn't explain why. It wasn't the forest's fault. It wasn't helping in any way. Not him. Not Lucy. Not anyone or anything. On the other hand, it was easy to explain: stress relief.

While Lucy slept, he sat on the edge of the crater he'd made with his power, and he'd tried to regain some sense of who he was and what he needed to be.

He twisted his wedding ring and closed his eyes.

"I'm okay," he told the crackling air. "I'm okay."

It wasn't a lie if _okay_ was taken extremely liberally. But he _had_ to be okay. It was important that he was okay. Lucy was recovering, but she was still struggling on a daily basis, and despite the visits from guild members, he could tell she wasn't comfortable spending time with many people.

She needed him _okay_.

Her good days were beginning to far outnumber her bad days, but her energy levels were entirely too low. Her magic was still drained.

"I'm okay."

Loke had come out on his own power to see her three or four times – as far as he knew, Loke was the only one of her spirits she had seen since waking – but they were clearly uncomfortable around one another. Laxus wasn't sure why. He hadn't wanted to ask. The first time Loke showed up, Laxus had been out. _Here_. Loke had probably been waiting for a time when Laxus was away... and then whatever had happened, it hadn't been great.

Loke tried several more times to talk to her, and Laxus had been there for those, but Lucy didn't want to respond. Painfully obvious Lucy was not interested in connecting with the lion spirit. Not yet.

Laxus didn't get it. Not at all. He knew that Loke'd been unhappy with the marriage, and freaking out about the pregnancy when it wasn't happening... but things had settled between them when she'd actually gotten pregnant. They'd been fine since then. This huge turn during such a fucking difficult time...

Dammed if it didn't seem to wreck the spirit.

"I'm okay."

Laxus took their failed interaction as a lesson and had gone more hands off. He didn't want to push her. He didn't want to completely lose her. Not her, too. That would be too much.

He hadn't told her the thing he'd realized. About how much he liked being with her. How he appreciated how considerate and kind she was. How much he valued the moments of fun she'd brought into his life. How she was smart, and that was great. He needed a smartass to call him on his shit sometimes, and she was good at that.

All of that meant he had been completely fucked by the possibility of losing her. It would destroy him if she tossed him away the way she was doing with Loke.

"Laxus...?" technically he'd heard her coming, but it confused him enough that he didn't believe it, and he twitched in surprise when her voice made him realize she was real. She shouldn't be outside, and not this deep into the forest.

"How..." he shook his head, ashamed of the shock, "the rings."

"Yeah."

He continued studying the crater, and he didn't look at her when she sat next to him. A foot away. He'd gone hands-off, and she'd accepted it. Easily. Too easily.

"I woke up, and … I guess I was worried. I didn't know if I was worried for you or for me."

He nodded. That was fair.

They sat for several minutes. He remembered how comfortable they were together before. How she would read and he would go through his music, and they would be content in silence.

This wasn't that.

"I wish I could hate you. This would be easier if I could hate you," Laxus finally told his wife. Verbalizing the complex emotions he'd been trying to keep caged inside. But they weren't in the house. They were in the forest, where he'd gotten used to exposing his raw feelings. The words came almost too quickly. "I don't think I've ever felt so … nothing has ever hurt like this before. Goddamn, Lucy, if I could hate you, this whole thing would be so much easier."

In his peripheral vision, he watched her wilt.

"Should have said this sooner, I guess. Knew it by the time we hit a year. Could have told you then. Now, we're almost at a year and a half. Should have said it sooner. I'm pretty sure I love you. And pretty sure saying _pretty sure_ is just me trying to pussy out. Fuck. Yeah. I love you. So hate, that's not possible. Hurt. Hurt is possible. Worse. Yeah. Hurt is worse. I should be doing better taking care of you, but … I'm not. I'm doing a shit job at this because... because I'm not okay," he admitted.

"You don't have to be okay." She was whispering through tears he could smell, but not hear. He was still looking at the crater. "You don't have to take care of me at the expense of yourself. I'd … I'd … I'd understand if you hated me. I would make more sense."

"The fuck it would. Easier, but no sense. That's not what I said."

"I was … I was … that was … how do I … we … I..."

He sat as she hiccuped around her tears and tried to gather her thoughts. Tried to gather his own. He didn't know what to tell her.

"My plan worked," she finally managed. "But the cost. What I did to us... that was my curse, not your curse. This was my..."

"My curse would have killed any woman I married. Between us, someone dies, Lucy. Every time. Maybe we were stupid for hoping, but it's the _curses_. It's whoever fucked your family. It's Mavis' mistake. It's shit, but it's us. It happened. Not you. I don't hate you."

"I don't hate you, either," she was back to whispering. "I kept expecting you to leave. To wake up, and you to be gone, but you're there, with me, every morning … but then tonight..."

"Sorry."

"No. I understand. You've been next to me for weeks. I understand needing out of that house. But … I was scared that maybe you might need … You've been with me every day. You've been so patient. I thought maybe you... Maybe I would tell you thanks. And … And maybe I would say that one thing, too. I don't want you to feel caught when … when now you don't have to be. But when I woke up after... and you were there, it felt _right_. The way my life is supposed to be. I'm pretty sure I love you, too. And when I say _pretty sure_ , I'm trying to not make you feel too much pressure. Really, what I want to say is that I love you. Very much."

He squeezed his eyes shut, and a tremor moved through him. She meant it. She meant all of it, and it _hurt_ him. Eyes still closed, he heard her shift beside him, moving on to her knees.

He opened his eyes to see her lean over him. There was no longer a foot of space between them. Her eyes were large. Glowing, despite the low light of a waning moon, and red-rimmed. One of her hands was on his shoulder. The other reached for his left hand.

"You've been so good to me this last month, Laxus. You let yourself survive on my need. Let me fall apart completely. Helped to build me back up, piece by piece." She kissed his ring and whispered, "Thank you." Again, "Thank you." And again, "Thank you."

The pain intensified. He shut his eyes against the image of her and her compassion. Undoing him.

It felt stolen.

Taken.

Unearned.

Selfish.

They had this thing, this feeling, but as she had said, the cost of it...

"I still need you, but I need you to need me, too." She continued, ignoring the way he tried to turn from her. She placed his hand against her cheek, holding it there in case he might try and pull away. Carefully, she traced wandering shapes on the back of his hand. His shoulder. As if soothing a frightened animal.

She twisted and sank back down to the ground she could sit curled in his arm, hand still held around her. Pressed tightly against his side. When she breathed, her ribs expanded against him, and he could feel the beat of her heart where his arm rested against her throat.

"I miss you. I miss us," she said, and their golden connection, her magic, told him it was true. "Thank you," she repeated, "for all that you've done for me. I know I'm not … I'm not all the way better, not yet, but you don't have to pretend to be, either. We're a team, Laxus. You and me, remember?"

Her muscles contracted, tightened. Her skin flushed, and he smelled salt and water fill her, but not fall.

"Thank you, for putting me back together. I wish you hadn't sacrificed your own health, but thank you." She clutched at him. His hand. His arm. "But I'm a little mended now, Laxus. Enough mended. It's time we look after you."

He flexed his left hand in hers, pushing it into her where it rested against her stomach. "I couldn't have done anything else."

"I accept that. But _now_ we're changing how we do things, okay?"

He looked down at her, and she looked up at him. "Okay."

This time when she smiled, it was a smile. A small smile, but a real smile. And it was for him.

He loved her.

0000

She had started writing, again. Short paragraphs at the end of each day. She folded them up and put them in the desk drawer next to the one she kept her book and her letters to her mother. Laxus was curious, but he didn't want to violate her privacy.

It was good to see her at her desk.

"Laxus," she called to him. It had been two months since she woke. "Laxus!"

"Yeah?!" He yelled back from the exercise area he had moved to their back porch. After the night at the crater, he'd decided to do all of his training closer to the house. He didn't want to risk going too far away and her needing him. And he just didn't want to be too far from her, in general.

Like she'd forced him to admit: He needed her, too.

"I'm out of paper, and my inkwell's almost dry."

She sat at her desk looking almost frightened. This might mean a trip to town. She was very particular about her writing shit. Certain weight of paper, certain formula of ink. He'd picked up the wrong kind before, and he'd bet money it still lay unused in the back of one of those desk drawers.

"Well," he said carefully, "you could make a list and we could send someone from the guild," _and likely end up getting it destroyed_ , "or I could go, or we could go together..."

In her eyes he saw a mix of fear and possibility. Laxus didn't know what he wanted her answer to be. She'd hated being trapped in the house the last few months of her pregnancy. It was _wrong_ that she'd voluntarily locked herself in … but watching her, guarding and guiding her in her vulnerability gave him focus and acted as a distraction from his own mind.

Fuck, he was doing it again. Selfish. He was a selfish bastard.

He was afraid of what would happen if she _really_ got better. If she truly stopped needing him.

"You can go get it? If I give you samples, they'll be able to give you what I need."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I can do that."

Technically it was progress. For both of them. It meant they'd be separated for at least … half an hour.

"You need anything else? New pen?" He looked at the ratty end of the quill she'd been using. She'd developed a habit of chewing on it that he didn't remember her having before.

"No. I've a good dip nib. It's holding up really well. Thank you for asking."

He shrugged off the too-formal gratitude. It wasn't like her. He tried to shrug off anything that wasn't like her.

"What if I stopped somewhere and got dinner from someplace other than Mira at the guild?" he offered.

Not that he hated Mira's cooking, but it was limited for people as used to traveling and eating around as they were. She made better bar food than, say, curries, and she wasn't the world's most patient baker. A lot of the more exotic and complex dishes came from outside restaurants and were reheated in the guild kitchens. Might as well buy from the source.

"That would be … nice." The possibility in her eyes was a little clearer.

"Whaddya want?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

"I can eat anything," he tried to be gentle. "What can you eat?"

She still had problems keeping food down, sometimes. Not much, anymore. But sometimes.

"What about the bakery bistro on Wisteria?" The suggestion was more timid than it would have been a handful of months ago.

Laxus nodded. He liked the place okay. They had good sandwiches and a small brick oven for 'personal' (he called them _small bite_ ) pizzas. Lucy really liked the place.

"Whaddya want?" he asked again. This time, she answered.

"Corn chowder in a bread bowl. Strawberry juice and soda."

He wanted to push her to get more, she'd lost a lot of weight, but he'd just over-order for himself. He could push it on her little by little.

He took samples of the writing stuff from her and a special bag she'd had made for keeping food warm. Laxus hesitated only for a moment before bending down and kissing her cheek. They'd been very cautious with physical affection, but they'd also not been away from each other. He didn't want to leave her with just a view of his back and the sound of his thunder. So he kissed her cheek and let his mouth linger there.

She didn't pull away; she leaned into him.

Just a moment longer he held. One moment longer. He closed his eyes and stayed for one moment longer.

He felt her tremble, and that told him to step back.

"I'll come home soon," he told her, his voice as quiet as it could be.

"I'll be here," she responded, in an equally quiet tone. Even and calm.

He left the house and zapped from their property to the edge of town. He'd actually ended up going into town twice more when she was unconscious. He'd taken the nursery furniture to Magnolia's orphanage. Like the funeral, Laxus had wanted to wait for Lucy to help. To let her have closure... but Wendy needed the room, and Laxus couldn't stand looking at the stuff. So he carried it, piece-by-piece, to the orphanage. Where they were grateful, and kind.

Half, at least, of Magnolia knew they'd lost the baby, and would happily deliver anything they needed, but Laxus didn't want a stranger on his property. Or near his wife. He couldn't imagine her responding all that well to the pitiful glances he was stoically walking by on his way to the stationary shop. She'd gotten a lot stronger in the last three weeks, but when an old woman started to tear up just seeing him, he knew he'd need to keep Lucy out of town for at least another month.

"I'm sorry, son," the middle-aged man at the till told him, while handing him change for the paper and ink. Laxus wanted to throw the change back in the man's face. Just looking at the amount, he knew it was too much. The man had given him a discount.

A discount. A goddamn discount. Because of...

Fuck. _Fuck_.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't stay there.

He took the bag of supplies and teleported back to their house. Nearly tore the door off its hinges.

But then she was there. Standing. Right there. In front of the door. Five feet. Waiting. Patiently. Had she been there the whole time? Or had she just stood when she heard him land?

It looked like she'd been standing for awhile.

"Laxus? What's wrong?"

"I...I...I..." he swallowed around so many conflicting emotions that he couldn't name half of them, "I didn't get dinner."

"That's okay, Laxus. We have enough in the house for dinner. We can try something different later in the week, maybe. I don't mind." She reached out with a slow, cautious movement and took his hand. "I don't mind."

When her mouth pressed against his ring, the knot in him loosened, and he collapsed against her.

"It's okay, Laxus. I'm here. I'm here."

She was struggling to stand under his weight, so he shifted to move both of them to the couch, but he continued to cling to her. Not too tight, but he was clinging. And it was more contact than they'd had since she woke.

He was trying so hard not to cry.

"I got ten percent off on your supplies because our baby died," he told her, and he failed completely.

She gasped, and the hand that had been threading through his hair stopped. "Wh...what?"

"I just left. What else could I fucking do? I couldn't... shit, Lucy, I..."

"Mezzi is a good man," she said, hesitant. "He probably didn't know what to say...what to do..."

"Yeah, but a fucking _discount_? On _paper_?! Why'd he have to do anything? Say anything?"

She was crying. "He's known me a long time. I don't know if you'd call us friends, but I spend more money in his shop than anywhere else. And more time, too. He doesn't have anything else to give me, us. And he probably thinks, what can I do? All he has is the shop. And so... that has meaning to him, and to me. He didn't mean to be offensive, Laxus. He didn't mean to be cruel. He didn't mean to hurt you."

He took a moment to put himself back together. "I know. I know. I just … lost myself."

"It's okay. That's fine," Lucy brushed tears from his cheeks and spoke reassurance against his throat.

"No. It's not."

"Yes, it is." She pushed herself up, off him and the couch, and reached down to pull him up with her. "Come on, Laxus. Let me take care of you, today. Remember our anniversary? Let's go to the pond."

"It's February, Lucy. It's freezing."

"We'll take blankets and make a fire," she countered. "Come on, Laxus. Let's go to the place by the pond and rest."

He only made her wait for a second before agreeing to her suggestion. He needed to be further away from the world. And he needed to be closer to her. That would be the best place.

"Okay."

"Good," she graced him with one of her small smiles, and sadness left him. "Let's go."

0000

Just because they were talking more openly, and they were sometimes leaving the house, that didn't make their day-to-day life easier. It actually made things harder. By actually admitting to himself, to her, that he had come to love her – not just care, but love – it was an even greater struggle to leave her. And by the end of the second month, it became necessary to leave.

They'd planned on him being able to start taking short jobs at that point. After around eleven months without either of them working, their savings were getting thin.

"We could go together," she suggested.

That had been his first thought, too, but it was a thought he'd quickly set aside. "Your magic is still too low. You're still feeling wear physically. I think you need to take more time." Before she could argue, he raised a hand, "Wendy and Porlyusica agree."

She wasn't happy about it. The lingering weakness pissed her off and fucking frustrated her. He saw her sometimes holding multiple gold keys in her hands and just staring at them. He knew that before her pregnancy she could call on several of her stronger zodiac spirits at once, but now even one was a struggle for her. So as unhappy as she might be, she also knew he wasn't wrong.

At the same time, it made him worried to leave the house. To leave her alone.

"How many of the keys _can_ you use?"

"I'm limited to my silver keys and the gold keys strong enough to take some of the burden, like Virgo. But Virgo can't really do that during battle."

He noticed she didn't mention _Loke_ , but Loke would be on that list of spirits who could come to her aid without need of her power. "The clock defense one?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Okay. That's good." He'd seen how that spirit could pop out and save even random people connected to Lucy from death at a moment's notice. As long as the clock was of use, he felt a little better.

"I'll be fine here, Laxus," she reached out and brushed her knuckles over his cheek.

He leaned into the touch. They were getting better, each week, each day, but they still touched each other so rarely. "You don't want anyone here with you?"

"No. I really don't," she drew back into herself quickly.

"That's fine, then. I'll pick a fast job."

"The issue is money," she said. "It's okay if you're gone for two or three weeks if the value of the time is higher. Take that into account when you choose. It's not worth going if the money doesn't work out."

He wasn't sure he agreed. The time mattered to him.

"Are you taking the Raijinshuu?" she changed the subject.

"No. Don't want to split the pay." And he didn't really want to be with anyone either. But he didn't want to say that. Fucking rude. Selfish. Jackass. "I can do whatever needs to be done on my own."

"You _can't_ do whatever, not always. You _can't_ , Laxus. Be careful." Her breathing and heartbeat sped up.

He tried to reassure her, "I won't be stupid, Lucy. You don't have to worry."

"You worry. I worry. That's the way this works, Laxus."

Yeah. Yeah, he got that.

"I'm not going for three weeks, Lucy." He grabbed her hand, which she had dropped to clutch at a bit of her hair that had come loose from where it had been tied up. "Doesn't matter the value-to-time or what the fuck ever. I'll be gone a week maybe, and Gramp'll come by sometimes, if you can put up with him. Levy-"

"No."

"You're mad at _Levy_?" With Loke he didn't understand the reason why, but he could believe Lucy'd get mad at him. Her being mad at Levy, however, was absurd.

"Of course not," she said, tugging on her hair, "but... she needs to be _happy_ , and she can't be happy around me. It's better that she spends her free time with Gajeel."

That made more sense. Was part of the reason why he tried to stay out of the way of his team. They just looked so goddamn sad...

"What about Wendy...?"

She bit her lip, and he waited. "Fine. Wendy."

"Okay. I'll tell her when I go check in at the guild."

"Tell Mira I can make food here. Make sure she doesn't think she has to come just because you're gone. I want fewer people here, Laxus. You make things easier. I can't handle so much pity on my own. So just … please. I need space."

Yeah. He got that shit, too. "Will do."

"I don't want..." she stopped. He could guess what she was trying to say easily enough, and he agreed.

"How can you say you want me gone for three weeks, then?" He allowed himself a bit of a smirk.

"I'd rather you be gone for two or three weeks all at once, ripping off the bandage, and then have you _back_ , for a straight month or more instead of having you gone for a week over and over and over again for three months."

She had a point. He didn't want that, either. But he couldn't handle three weeks. Not so soon. He couldn't rip that bandage.

"I can't do that, Lucy."

She swallowed and looked away. They had been sitting in the living room, talking, looking at one another all morning. Trying to work out how to handle the next stage in their life, and fuck if it hadn't been more awkward than that first meeting in Gramps' office.

He really didn't want to leave.

He really didn't have a choice.

"Then take a week," she turned back. "Take something short."

"Thanks."

"I shouldn't have pushed you; I apologize."

Too formal. He shook it off. She hadn't spoken to him like that in a month. It told him exactly how worried she was about the whole situation.

"I'm going to head out, then." He forced himself to stand. Sooner he left, sooner he'd be back.

She stood with him. "Be safe."

"Will do."

She walked him to the door where he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He paused. They were still so cautious in their affection, even after confessing. Whether it was fear or something else, both of them were wary of the other, keeping touches simple and infrequent. He hadn't done anything more than kissing her cheek, and she had drawn back slightly after their day at the pond.

Maybe _uncertainty_ was a better word for their feelings and actions. Their relationship was a tangle of knots, feelings of horror and tragedy and emptiness. Neither of them really knew what to do, so it made them awkward where before, before they had a single driving purpose and goal for their relationship. That had been easy. They didn't have that anymore.

He telegraphed his movements, bending slowly so that she could pull away, but she didn't.

His hands were on the door knob and his bag. Her hands were clutching her own shirt. But when their lips met, despite the nervousness that absence left them with, it felt natural. Because it had been so long, he kept it brief. Meant to keep it brief. When she rocked forward and raised up on her toes for one more second of contact, he burned.

Her hands left her shirt to hold on to his face. Making easier their connection. Making gentler and sweeter the moment.

It was like the first time he kissed her. It taught him something. That first time, it taught him that she could move him. This time, with her power to move him being a truth he already knew, he was given a truth that added to that first revelation, that first lesson:

This was going to last. If they could survive _this_ , they were going to last.

One more second to look at her. To store an image of her, pink-cheeked and almost smiling, in his memory. Then he walked into the front garden and teleported to town.

0000X0000

I just want to say, thank you, everyone, for the support following chapter seven. Some of you shared stories of women you know (of women you ARE) who went through similar situations. It was heartbreaking, and also kind in how you responded to my story through the perspective of that experience. So, thank you. Thank you so much, and my love to you and yours.


	9. Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the plot comes to a close. Or does it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. Broke my arm. Some surgery stuff. Depression. Whatever Whatever. Excuses. Final chapter.

Family

Chapter 9

Communication

The man he caught was crying.

"Kill me! Just kill me! I don't care!"

Laxus scowled, and the sobbing increased. He was at a loss of what to do. Not that he would have killed the man before, but two years ago this would have been simpler. Two years ago this wouldn't have affected him. Two years ago … two years ago he wouldn't have given a shit.

It was fucking alarming how much crying, how much other people's fear of him, made him want to run away.

"Listen, asshole, I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to know where your client went with the staff. I don't want to hurt you. I don't give two shits about you. I just need the fucking staff!"

The man continued to weep, and Laxus, completely fed up, released him and ran his hands through his hair.

"Look, that staff is _dangerous_ ," he said. "It isn't safe for yo-"

0000

He woke in an unfamiliar room, confused and generally sore, but comfortable. The bed itself was mediocre, but the pretty woman curled up, snoring softly against him made the whole atmosphere feel much nicer than it would if he was alone.

"Lucy?" he croaked. The roughness of his voice told him it had gone unused for a long time, and the pain that had blossomed in his head at the sound helped him make sense of some of it.

He'd been knocked on his ass.

She'd saved him?

Last he knew she was in Magnolia. He'd been half the country away. He lifted his left hand and started to see his ring finger bare.

"Lucy? Lucy, wake up," he shook her.

He'd been working regularly for five months, and she'd started back on small jobs the month before. He knew he was maybe still a little too … cautious with her. Levy had cornered him two weeks earlier and reminded him she was physically healed and safe to touch.

Even so, part of him was horrified at how he shook her awake.

"Eh?" she mumbled, eyes blinking. "Ah! Laxus! You're awake! Finally!" She threw herself at him, and he grunted under her slight weight. She wasn't heavy. Not by a long shot. But his muscles were tender, and his skin felt... burned.

"What happened?" Laxus wrapped his arms around her, grateful for the feeling. Who the fuck cared about a little ache and burn? Though they'd gotten closer again, she was still hyper-sensitive to touch most of the time and was prone to shying away after short moments of contact. He had done pretty good not to see it as rejection, and to cherish every second he got. So pain could go fuck itself.

She wasn't pulling away.

"You were ambushed by a dark guild," she told him, voice muffled from being pressed so tightly to his chest. He loosened his grip. Just so she could breathe, and talk. Just that much.

" _Guild_."

"Mmhmm."

"I was hunting a solo mage."

She nodded, shifting so that she slid off of his lap, but not so far that she left the circle of his arms. Moving only enough to make eye contact easier. His heart squeezed. Goddamn he'd gotten soft.

Did he care?

_No._

He lifted his left hand and let it run through her hair. She'd let it get so long recently. He played with it while she explained what happened; she didn't stop him.

"He had a guild, not a big one, but 10 members. They hit you from behind. You don't remember?"

Laxus considered for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't. What happened to my ring?"

"Oh!" She pulled away, leaving him feeling empty, but quickly returned from her bags. "They stole them. Wedding ring, sound pods, wallet, everything."

"Everything."

"Yes."

"Stole them?"

"Yes."

"How did you get them back?" She might have started doing small jobs with her team, but last he talked to her, two weeks earlier, she was holding open one gold constantly and could pull a second gold at need for short periods. No way was he comfortable with her going after an entire dark guild.

"I fought them one-on-ten, and beat them! Duh!" She paused for a triumphant moment, one hand on her hip, the other fisted in the air, then snorted. "Don't be a dumbass. I felt pain in the rings, then you vanished. I went and got the book from Gramps, traced you through that, and found you naked in the woods, unconscious. Then had your team, my team, Gajeel Lily Levy, and Mira track down and take down the guild while Wendy and I saw to you."

He considered. "Oh."

"Mmm, yeah."

He took the ring from her and slid it on. Though she hadn't used her power, hadn't called for him, he felt doubly aware of her just having it. He leaned over and, with what had become standard caution, kissed her.

For a long moment her entire body projected nothing but pure desire for him. Them. She leaned, lifted, reached. Gasped, clinched, sighed.

Then the moment was over, as it was always over, and her mouth parted from his. But this time the distance was small. Barely room to draw a breath.

"Laxus," she whispered across his lips, and her power flickered in the gold on his finger. Almost, almost spreading to consume him. Almost, almost what they once had.

Almost, almost.

"Lu-"

"Laxus," this was more certain. Farther away. Nothing, nothing. "The latest test came back last week."

His muscles went hard, stone. Pain vanished. His heart stopped. He couldn't breathe.

"I'm clean. Completely clean of the curse. But it ruined my ovaries. Severely damaged my uterus. Doesn't work." She lowered her voice, "And I'm not even sad. It was selfish. I told you before. I was selfish. The whole time I don't need children, and I'm happy just … just watching over the guild. But..." she trailed off.

"But?"

"But _you_ wanted a family. I heard it in you when you said the word. Felt it in you. I can't keep that from you."

"What are you saying, Lucy?"

"I'm saying," she closed her eyes and took a breath, and then opened them and faced him, eyes deep, certain, strong, "there's no reason to stay. I'm saying I can't give you what you want."

"Want? I never wanted anything. I stumbled on this... curse, and lucked into something special. Unexpected. Fucking tragic. Potentially the best thing that ever happened to me, and the best decision I ever made." He pulled her close again. "We discussed this before. I love you. What your … uterus can or cannot do … that isn't gunna change that. And I've never loved anyone else. No reason a family can't be you and me. It _is_ you and me. You _are_ my family, Lucy."

He wanted to change the subject. He sucked at this shit. But at the same time he knew it was another emotional pile of crap they needed to overcome. Levy had said so. Gramps had said so. Mira had said so. Bix had said so. Everyone said so. And he'd thought it more than once, against his own will, when he was too tired to ignore his own fucking angst.

Fuck. Some days he couldn't even recognize himself.

"I can't imagine needing anything or anymore than I've got now," he assured her. "If you wanted kids, that would be fine, but you don't have to want them for me. I never thought I was suited to be a parent. Even after you came to me, I wasn't sure how I'd manage. I knew we _would_ , I just couldn't see it yet."

He watched as she swallowed back a reply. Tilting her head to consider his words. He didn't press it, letting her think. Hardly content, but as long as she stayed close, as long as she was still next to him – touching him – they were still okay.

As long as she didn't leave, they were still okay.

Each minute was torture. Each minute was hell. But it only took two.

"So … not having children – not trying again or adopting – you're okay with that?"

"Yeah. I'm okay with that." His hand returned to her hair, glad they were finally through with this. He should have listened to his gramps months ago. But they hadn't been ready months ago.

Her eyes flicked away, "And staying married?"

His nostrils flared. "Were we even considering... Of course. I'm not going anywhere."

"Are you sure?" She shifted, and he let the arm around her waist loosen more, but wouldn't let her go completely. "This hasn't been a happy two years for you, Laxus. We both know that. The curse is gone. No child to tie you. And I certainly wouldn't blame you. Wouldn't judge you."

"I love you," he said firmly. He hadn't said it often. Maybe he should have. Maybe she had forgotten.

"But love doesn't mean you're _happy_ , Laxus..." she looked at and then quickly away from his face. Glanced at the room around them. At her hands.

" _You're_ not happy, that's what you're saying. That's what you mean..." he sighed. This had been a reoccurring nightmare of his since she came out of her coma.

"I'm a terrible wife."

"First of all, you're not. Second of all, it's been hard as hell, and it _isn't_ your fault," he insisted. Laxus tugged at the hair his fingers were tangled in, "Leaving won't make it easier." He considered his own statement and rephrased, "I don't think leaving will make it easier. Not sure about you, but the best part of any week is coming home. Worst part is leaving. Has shit to do with the house, Magnolia, the guild... No. Every day may not be happy, but days with you are better than days without you."

There was a long, heavy silence. Oppressive and awful. He didn't think she actually wanted a divorce. He'd never felt that from her before, so he couldn't get where this was coming from to counter it.

But he needed to counter it. He needed to keep her.

"It's better now, right?" he asked. "Better than it was … then?"

"Today. Yesterday was... The day before..." She stumbled over her words.

"Ah." Well. That made more sense. Not depression. Not just depression. _Fear_. "Yeah. But would you stop giving a shit if I left? Erase everything? Forget? Reset the world to a time before this happened?"

"I'm not sure I remember how to be happy," she finally looked at him again. She wasn't crying – she didn't cry much anymore – but her eyes had the liquid look that he associated with tears.

He untangled his hand and moved to stroke the soft curve of her cheeks. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

"Fair. I've never been like … like Gramps. Or Mira. Able to find happy when I'm not. And I'm not a happy-go-lucky asshole by nature. You know that. Team's not helping?"

She shrugged. "They go back and forth. Eggshells and over the top. Erza's really stiff, Natsu acts like nothing happened, Gray tries to show me all the wonderful things in the world and make me forget, Juvia cries just looking at me half the time. Wendy is … quite. But calm. So I rely on Wendy. Which is probably cruel. She's still so young, and she saw it happen; it was hard on her."

"Levy seems okay."

"Levy's okay-"

Laxus grunted at what was becoming an old point, "But you want her to focus on her own relationship."

"Yes."

"She talked to me," Laxus admitted. "She thinks we're being too – weak with one another."

"Or maybe we're holding on too much to something we shouldn't," she suggested.

Laxus almost growled, "Why are you pushing me, Lucy?"

"I'm..." she reached out her left hand and hooked her ring finger around his. Pulling it from her face to rest in between them. "You're anxious. Stressed. Pushing _yourself_."

"Ugh. Where these," he twisted his finger around so that he latched onto her instead, "become more hindrance than help. I'm anxious cuz you're not … _here_ often enough," he gestured at the space between them, "and I don't want you unhappy."

Sharp knocks broke into their conversation, not quite shattering the tense atmosphere, but it did make both of them start in surprise. And he should have heard them coming.

"Enter!" he commanded after securing a nod from her.

Levy and Gajeel both entered, Lily between them.

"The others wanted to come," Levy said, "but I convinced them you didn't need the over-stimulation. This one," she pointed at Gajeel, "is a risk, but the others are way too much. Especially around the two of you."

"Fucking morons." Gajeel's grin was sharp, as usual.

Laxus snorted, "That's my team you're insulting."

"Yeah. And hers, too," the man pointed a pierced chin in Lucy's direction. "All of them almost suffocated you to death freaking out about bein' knocked the fuck out. Morons."

Laxus considered getting worked up over the issue, but he didn't have the energy. Besides, Lucy was shrugging it off.

"Have they gone yet?" Lucy asked instead.

"No," Levy twirled a pen, Laxus didn't think she even knew she was doing it, "but they're packing. We'll do brunch in town and catch the one o'clock train."

Lucy nodded, "I messaged Gramps last night, but I think we'll stay here at least one more night if not two, to rest. Let him know, please."

"Will do, Lu-chan." The small, blue-haired woman gave a quick salute and equally quick hug to his wife before turning to leave.

They all expected Gajeel to follow, as he usually did, but instead he held them up.

"What?" Laxus groaned.

"Shit gets too crazy, you know you can call, yeah? Not to turn this into feel-good, pansy-shit but-"

"I had no idea the bastard had a guild at his beck and call. Thought the guy was solo, and I could handle him. I wasn't – far as I knew – overextending." He scratched the tender spot on the back of his head, "But thanks."

"No problem. Alright," Gajeel turned to leave, "come on, Shrimp."

"Don't _come on_ me!" Levy snapped from the hall, "I've already left!"

"Take care, and do call if you need assistance, or if you stay longer than one extra night," Lily said while rolling his eyes at his partner. The exheed was the one to shut the door.

They sat in silence for a solid minute.

"So," he finally broke, "that's the plan, then. You, me, here."

"Mmm, for a day or two. The dark magic at your head would make any transportation sickness worse and give you transportation sickness even while teleporting according to Wendy. Which would likely lead you to slamming into the side of a mountain. Better for you to rest it off."

Just saying the word _transportation_ felt like taking a boulder to the crown of his skull. He believed her. And Wendy knew her shit.

"So, that's a plan for the next couple of days." Laxus said, before jumping right back into where they left off. Better to say what he wanted. Say it and get it over with. "What about the next couple of years? Because I like having you in my life and unless you just can't stand it, I want you t'stay there. Here."

"I can stand it," she mumbled. "I can stand it." And finally she smiled; though, it was a weak and weary thing, "I'll stay."

He gave into the lingering weakness in his body and fell back into bed. "First two years … not the best. I'll agree. But no reason why the next two can't be better."

"You have any ideas?" Lucy stretched and then slowly lowered herself so that she was tucked into his side.

"I feel bad about it, but what if we give up our teams. Maybe not every time, but more often that we have been. I'd like to spend more time with you."

"Maybe not every time," she agreed, "but I like the sound of that."

Laxus could hear her voice as she continued to talk. To make plans. To dream small, short dreams. But before he could respond, or even really understand, he was asleep.

0000

It took two days to get him back on his feet well enough to zap them both home. While he'd been laid up, he'd heard from Lucy exactly how the others had taken down the guild who knocked him on his ass. She also teased him a bit about being naked when they found him as soon as he was completely healthy enough to take the teasing.

Mildly embarrassing, but it was what it was. And she was a soft touch with the jokes. More respectful of his bruised ego than he had any right to expect. He dreaded dealing with the guild. But... it was what it was.

What was more important was the slight way Lucy wilted when she entered their house. She'd been almost happy sitting with him at the hospital, they'd chatted, and she'd slept tucked tightly against him. She'd been happy, he knew it, but all of that vanished as he watched energy drain from her when she walked through the door.

They didn't typically go on jobs together, and they never came home at the same time. He'd never seen such a drastic change. Thinking about it, it had been … he couldn't remember how long since he'd seen her so happy as she'd been sitting at his bedside. Over a year.

Over a year, much of it trapped inside.

Laxus had never considered it. He'd built the place himself. Owned the property. But it was only a short pause before he suggested, "We should move."

She stopped in front of him. Stiff. "What?"

"Move. Start over. There is a bit of unclaimed land near the river. Little closer to Natsu than I usually like, but he's calmed down. Knows better than to come looking for a fight." He looked around at the living room, "We can design it better than I did this one. Bigger dining area; I didn't really give a shit the last time. Real place for your books. Put in a training area for me..."

The more he talked, the more he warmed to the idea. He hadn't realized it before, but there was a coldness, a sadness that lingered in the dark corners. They were both better than they were, but even if they stayed together, there was a possibility that they'd lose each other if they didn't do something different.

She turned finally and looked up at him. She blinked twice, but didn't ask what he meant or why he'd make the suggestion. Laxus wondered how many times she'd thought about escaping. Wondered why she never mentioned it. Wondered why she'd never _done_ it.

"What if we kept the land an built a new house," she suggested. "Closer to the crater. I know that means you wouldn't want to sell this one, but you wouldn't have to make an extra training area, and we can make a smaller house. One floor, one bedroom, one office."

Clenching his jaw, he held back a sigh of relief. He liked the land. A lot.

"If your spirits can help, I think we can stand to lose the money not selling the house and land. Taurus can cut my heavy lifting in half, and – if she's willing – I think Aries' wool would make better insulation than anything we could buy. Gemini doubling as me, another lifter, or Gramps."

"Cancer could cut wood … I wonder if Sagittarius would do nails..." Lucy bit a thumbnail.

Laxus almost smiled. This was what they needed. This was what they were missing.

"If they can't, we'd still be fine. Get it done in half the time and cheaper having help lugging shit and not having to buy some supplies."

She did actually smile, and it was levels above what he'd seen in the hospital earlier in the week. "You serious about this?"

"Yeah," he took a step forward to grab one of her hands. It was cold. They needed this. "Yeah. Let's start over. Fresh. Make a place that's ours with our own hands and power. Maybe I wouldn't have known I love you without the bad, but that doesn't mean we've got to fucking live in regret for the rest of our lives."

He grabbed her other hand and bent slightly so that he could face her as directly as possible. "Let's start over: I love you. I want to build a life with you. A _happy_ life."

Lucy laughed. Laughed and pulled her hands from his so she could hop and throw her arms around his neck. Their kisses had been fleeting, infrequent things. This deep expression of jubilance lit a fire in him that caused him to cling to her, maybe too tightly.

But she didn't complain.

"I would be honored to help you build a home for us," she panted when she finally pulled away. "I've helped enough times with rebuilding the guild that I'm pretty sure I've got it down."

"How about we set up by the lake?" he suggested. "Where me, Virgo, and Aries built the deck. Good place for a foundation, and already got the deck."

"How about we go see it, and let me make a decision in person?" her eyes sparkled.

This was it. This was Lucy. This was what had been missing between them. And when he shifted her up into a more comfortable position to carry (despite a few grumbling protests that she could walk perfectly well herself), he recognized a growing warmth loosen his muscles and ease his joints. He needed this, too.

Curse or no curse, holding on to their guilt so tightly was killing them both. They were haunted by it. Despite what Lucy claimed, neither of them wanted, really wanted, to trade one life for another. A chance for them all or death … death for her. For Lucy. The baby was never supposed to be at risk.

Was it their fault? Yes. Even outside of the house, even free, Laxus felt the shadows coat his bones. And laying Lucy on the lakeside bed, he could see those same shadows in her eyes. When they were old, old, old those shadows would remain. Loss like that … that doesn't disappear.

But. With some effort, they wouldn't be ruled by it.

So much shit in his life he'd done wrong. Marrying Lucy wasn't on that list.

Hours later, after they'd drawn lines into dark dirt, imagining what the place could be; after they put a brilliantly patterned celestial-world cloth over the mattress to form a tent capable of keeping out the elements; after they reminded each other (and themselves) of the many non-combative uses of magic, Lucy sighed over the bare skin of his chest. He liked how content it sounded. How sleepy.

"Let's do it again," she whispered. Her voice was slightly scratchy.

He exploded with laughter that nearly bounced her head – and all of the rest of her – off his torso. "You're going to have to give me a little longer than two minutes."

She pushed herself up and he caught her clear look of disgust and sharp snort before she crawled away to dig through her bag. It didn't take her long before she crawled back and slapped him on the arm.

"Sit up, asshat," she demanded, sitting down beside him. He did as ordered. Why would he not?

After a deep breath, which was like and yet entirely unlike the steadying breath she had taken at the hospital, she opened her hand. Nestled in the center of her palm, clear under the moonlight shining through the window in the tent, was a wide ring. It didn't resemble their original rings, being a purer gold, and was studded with diamonds and something darker. Red, he thought.

"I was thinking the same as you," she told him. "For awhile now. That we could use a fresh start. But we didn't start at the house. We started at the guild. When I asked. When you proposed. I love you, too. And … I would like to declare that again. Publicly. Maybe with your grandfather. Maybe with our friends. Nothing too outlandish. But... Laxus, would you marry me again?"

She was trembling, and he remembered perfectly the first time she came to him two long-ass years ago. Trembled then, too. Different reasons. Eh, same reason. But she shouldn't have been so worried. He wasn't going to turn her down.

"I like the red," he took the ring from her and slid it on next to the plain gold one he already wore. "I'll leave this one on too until we do vows again. I know you can find me through the book if you need, but I like the direct contract you've got through this."

She flashed him a slightly watery, trembling smile and nodded. "I do, too."

Eventually they slept, and this time she dropped off first, but before that they talked about their house, and jobs, and the guild, and each other. They talked about today, tomorrow, and all the time that would come after.

Yeah, the first two years weren't great. But all the rest? All the rest would be fucking magic.

0000X0000

**THE END**

_Author's Note:_

Rings are diamonds and garnets, January's birthstone. For the baby. Came to me when my mom got a mother's ring this summer. 4 stones. Two for me and my brother. And my two stillborn sibs. I never knew when they were born. I do now. SOOO hard not to cry when she showed me the finished ring. I do not know how my mom does it.

Between the start of this fic and now, my friend has gotten a tattoo of her daughter. It is very beautiful. She talks about her often and about the process of grief. I don't know how the hell she does it either, but bloody bless her and her strength.

Sorry it took so long. No excuse except depression. No comment except I'm still alive, and there was a little bit there where I wasn't sure I was going to be. So, you know. Push through, I guess. Sometimes a day sucks and then a week sucks and then a month sucks... and a fucking year fucking sucks so goddamn hard... just so fucking goddamn hard and everything is just fucking awful and it's hard to quantify why... and then things aren't so bad one day. And that's the day you stick around for.

That and the fact that your mom's wearing a ring that already has two dead kids on it. 

Thanks for sticking with me and this story. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great life!


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